


The Campagin of the Three Rising Suns

by WestOrEast



Category: Exalted (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Cooking, Drama, F/F, F/M, Fights, Humor, Lunar Exalted, Multi, Other, Roleplay, Romance, Solar Exalted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 00:47:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 28,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20183458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WestOrEast/pseuds/WestOrEast
Summary: A collection of summaries of the Exalted sessions I'm part of.





	1. The Player Characters

Liang Yaohua is the prince of a coastal kingdom, just across the water from the immense island that is the seat of the Empire's power. The Immaculate Order holds less sway there, but it does not hold so little that a prince who speaks out too freely against it in defense of his people's welfare could go unpunished. Refusing to go into exile and about to be executed, Prince Yaohua gave one final speech from the gallows, exhorting his people never to give up hope nor bow to unjust rule. He Exalted in that moment, and his kingdom rose up in rebellion.  
  
Yaohua is a young man of perhaps twenty-three, and in the way of young men who have done a bit of reading from time to time, he considers himself something of a scholar. He has studied the sword as an art form, in the same way that he has studied the culinary arts; his knowledge of war and tactics is cursory in comparison, and he does not consider himself a warrior or general. Rather, he considers himself the steward and guardian of his people, first and foremost, with all other pursuits being secondary.  
  
Prince Yaohua's defining trait is his compassion, followed closely by his enthusiasm for whatever pursuits he throws himself into. In the same way that he cannot, _will not_ brook any threat to his people, nor leave unaddressed any hurt or malady of the common folk under his protection, he cannot abide the notion of leaving any beautiful young lady unappreciated. To some, this means he is an outrageous flirt; from his own perspective, his willingness to woo even the otherwordly assassin with a blade to his throat comes from a place of love, even_ noblesse oblige._  
  
On this adventure, Yaohua has managed to bring with him both his god-blooded steed, Summer Lightning (passed down through the family for at least a generation or two) and an incredibly finely-crafted sword. The sword was a gift from his sister, Yilan, whom he did _not_ manage to bring with him; he worries about her terribly, but trusts her to manage the realm in his absence. The prospect of a reunion is nearly as great a motivator for his eventual return as the need to liberate his people from the Scarlet Empire.

* * *

  
In accordance with [CptTagon](https://forum.questionablequesting.com/members/1493/) 's wishes, I am here to tell you about Tomoe Tai To Tsuki(Sun and Moon) (nee Gozen). (First off, I was honestly super lazy in some parts character concept, and lifted FGO Tomoe Gozen for looks and name.)  
  
Tomoe was the Heiress of the Gozen Clan. Due to her station, and when she was born, there were/are basically no suitors. Partly resigned to a very awkward age gap marriage or becoming a spinster and passing the headship of her clan off to one of her cousins' lines, Tomoe went down the warrior path and eventually came to command a scale (roughly 25 people) of Gozen vassal warriors, specializing in mounted archery, with Tomoe as their primary melee warrior. The Land of the Rising Sun is very isolated, but sometimes bandits or explorers climb the cliff it takes to get into the Land of the Rising Sun. A particularly well armed, numerous, and skilled number of outsiders managed to make it up this time, and Tomoe's scale suffered drastic casualties. Wanting to protect her country, and her peasant vassals, Tomoe dug deeper and deeper for more, and then the Sun rose upon her brow.  
  
When she came down from the battle high, there she was coated in blood and offal and the remnants of her scale bowing reverently. Since then her scale has been reinforced, and for a time she was on what amounts to House Arrest. Eventually Red Silk (the Sidereal mentor) appeared and shortly after so did her Lunar Mate Red Hare(who is a biiiiiiig man and a biiiiiig horse, on top of being the love of Tomoe's life). Sometime after Red Silk dropped a whole temple off, and with it came Hei and her priests. A month or so of tea times, and maybe a trip to the onsen or two, Tomoe and Hei became good friends. At around that time Yaohua showed up, and CptTagon has summarized the rest.  
  
  
  
I haven't had a real chance to show off the poet part other than like two or three haikus(short poetry is surprisingly hard), but I went for a warrior-poet samurai in general concept, and cherry picking some of the things I liked about FGO Tomoe. I haven't quite gotten to the part where she goes into beserker rages yet, but that's only a few XP away.

* * *

  
Hei was almost literally born into the Reino shrine. The only temple in the backwater rural lands, they were one of the few who still worshiped the Unconquered Sun in his aspect as the Purifying Flame. Deeply heretical, according to the Immaculate Order, but those monks were a long way away. She liked it there, indulging in her love of knowledge and having a wide enough social circle to develop her abilities with people, and didn't really see a reason why she would ever leave beyond short trips to particularly isolated areas in need of spiritual help.  
  
When the Immaculate Order finally heard of the temple, they attacked, killing over half of the priests and priestesses there. Hei Exalted saving the shrine's children, driving the monks and their wounded leader off. However, even with her newfound power, she was not enough of a warrior to forever bar the gate. So when Red Silk offered to teleport both her, the shrine, and all the survivors somewhere far away, she knew she had to take the offer.  
  
Hei is not nearly the fighter her new comrades are. Instead, she focuses on knowledge, both of how people and the world in general work. She takes her faith very seriously, and was relieved beyond measure that they are safe now. Personally, she is uptight and serious, two traits that have become more pronounced as she realizes how much singular power she has, and how careful she has to be using it.

* * *

The Shadow with Robes as Red as Blood is a Day Caste Abyssal Exalt. She had long served the Royal Family of Thorns, the playmate/body double/body guard/handmaiden of the Princess Yilan. The two of them were as close as master and servant could be. Shortly after the execution of Prince Yaohua the city erupted into riots and violence. The Realm sent forces to calm the city.  
  
The Mask of Winters sent the Juggernaut to conquer the city.  
  
Near the start of the Mask's occupation of Thorns, Red-that-was replaced Princess Yilan to keep the princess safe. Good timing too, since Red-that-was died. As she laid there in a pool of blood, scared of dying and desperate to continue to help Yilan, the Mask of Winters offered a deal.  
  
And so the Shadow with Robes as Red as Blood was made. During the brief time Red was actually in 'training and 'service,' the sick, mad genius of the Mask of Winters caused a magical death shroud to be more-or-less stapled Red's soul. Red managed to put herself back together after the trauma of her near death experience and the on going trauma that was 'training.'  
  
That was when she was imprisoned and subjected to 'correction.' That was when the Green Lady appeared, gave Red a great big artifact scroll, and a gift from the surprisingly still living city god. Then the Green Lady help Red out of the Mask's control.  
  
Since then Red has found Yilan in the Undercity and joined the Resistance. She is kept from a great many of it's workings since most of the people don't trust the Deathknight, but they do share some if their intelligence. This has let Red find, kill, cripple, or maim several other baby Abyssals and steal their artifacts.  
  
She has her 'magpie' stash somewhere far outside the city that has more artifacts than some solars find in solar tombs. Of those artifacts Red only uses the Bonespike (A dagger with interesting applications from unexpected attacks) and the Flying Mantis Blade (A one-handed scythe that can extend it's neck to become whip like and greatly extend her range).  
  
It was probably one of the most interesting days of her life when she lead an enemy abyssal right into a pack of solars on accident. And one of those solars happened to be the formerly dead Prince Liang Yaohua. Yilan's older brother, and the rightful ruler of Thorns.


	2. The Story Thus Far

Today in Exalted, one of the other players seduced the goddess we had rescued last session, and had vigorous enough sex with that they fell through two floors into the dining room (and onto the dining table) where the ministers of the kingdom had assembled for breakfast. Following them down, I convinced the assembled dignitaries that a three day festival and celebration is needed to let all reaffirm their loyalty and piety to the newly returned goddess. All the while, the loud, vigorous sex was continuing.  
  
While organizing the festival, I am insisting that the priestesses do their utmost to act as Amaterasu would act.

* * *

  
In today’s Exalted session, Prince Yaohua continued to fuck the goddess Amastreua, acing some rolls to see if he could keep it up as the inhumanly beautiful goddess rode him. In the meantime, I kept on organizing the festival. The icons I sketched up of her were so beautiful that the assembled ministers were almost reduced to tears looking at them.  
  
And my letter exhorting the priest/priestesses of the nation to emulate were so well done the original is being placed in the reliquary of the shrine I call home. Alongside the love note Yaohua wrote to one of my fellow priestesses. Both are couched in hidden language that still makes it clear that sex is about to happen.  
  
And after Yaohua had finally escaped from underneath Amastreua, I gave her a massage good enough to give her one last orgasm, and then send her to sleep. Now the party is looking for our third member’s cousin, so we can get the keys to the clan’s special booze for the festival.

* * *

  
After a bit of a break, we had a great Exalted session again. And a long one, almost five hours.  
  
As some of you may recall, the three of us had set out to acquire some extremely good alcohol from Lady Tomoe Gozen’s aunt, a skilled brewmaster. It turned out that she had entered an orchard sometime ago and not come out since. Entering, Gozen almost immediately got drunk off the alcoholic vapors coming off the ripe fruit hanging off every branch. Prince Yaohua was forced to keep her on track and suffer through her extremely loud, extremely enthusiastic shouts for her auntie. Eventually, we found her, after Gozen got considerably more drunk off of the fumes. She(Kushi) was sleeping in mid-air, hanging upside down with a vine wrapped around her ankle. Gozen thought it was a good idea to put everything she had into a shout to wake her aunt up.  
  
She was so loud her shout shattered the tree I was in, leveling a good section of the glade (I wasn’t even touched by fruit juice, I’m so good at dodging). That didn’t wake Kushi. Me shooting the vine holding her up and her falling down into Yaohua’s arms didn’t wake her up. What did wake her up?  
  
On the way back, Gozen said that she’d describe her first time with her shapeshifting lover (who mostly spends his time as a horse) if Kushi woke up. When that didn’t work Gozen threatened that if she didn’t wake and (mostly) sober up, not only would no alcohol be served at the wedding of Gozen and her lover, Kushi also wouldn’t be invited to try the two of them out. That got Kushi sober enough to mostly stand on her feet, and then try to grope me.  
That of course, wasn’t happening. I wasn’t going to get groped by a stranger, even a MILF who was a kin to my companion. After grabbing her hands just made her try to kiss me, I got a bit more active. But we got to the bathhouse to clean up with nothing worse than a few dirt stains on Kushi.  
  
At the baths, Gozen’s lover (human this time) was already there, soaking up the heat. So was Yaohua’s steed, sitting in the bath in that fantastically derpy way horses do. Yaohua joined the two of them, while I, Gozen and Kushi went into the female half of the bath.  
  
After that, we started talking about how to get access to Kushi’s special stock of booze. When the topic quickly turned to compensation, well:  
[21:44] <HeiReino> “That depends. Do you want money or services? I am skilled in several areas that could be of great use to you.”  
[21:46] <HeiReino> <innocent>I was talking about my skills as a miko, of course </innocent>  
  
I rolled a fantastic amount of success and she quickly accepted. Although random groping to satisfy a drunken woman wasn’t happening, sex would if it got me something in return. After bringing her to an orgasm in the bath, to the shock, but not displeasure, of the other bathers, we got access to what we wanted.  
  
It was a thoroughly enjoyable session.

* * *

  
Today’s gaming session was considerably less pervy and a lot more bloody. After transferring a still drunken Kushi to Tomoe to cling to, I arose before the dawn to observe the proper rituals for the Unconquered Sun again shining upon the world. Prince Yaohua also rose to look for ingredients to both cook with, and to compose a missive to a priestess at my shrine. I had not even started when we both saw a shadowy figure on the roof of another building in the village. Out of character, I thought it was our new player’s characters. That thought was soon dispelled as it attacked Yaohua when he went to investigate. We all thought it odd when the ninja corpse continued to bleed with a pressure and quantity far in excess of what a human body could manage. Then we saw the dark figures appearing on the roofs all around us.  
  
Some dark sorcery was at play, and soon the three of us were under attack by ninja’s, spilling blood as the sun rose over the courtyard. After Tomoe skewered a ninja behind her, she hurriedly dressed in her armor and came storming out. She was in time to see the new PC (Yasha) come flying out of the sky and into a shed, killing one ninja with the shrapnel. She also saw a woman on top of a roof, watching us fight and kill. The rest of us were aware that something was hidden from our eyes, but not what or where.  
  
When it came time for me to act, I acted with the full force of a priestess of the Sun, literally putting the fear of god into them. It was enough to make the woman reveal herself. She affected a haughty mien, even as we saw her fingers trembling. She demanded that we leave the entire East and return to the center of creation (for reference, Tomoe has lived her entire life in these lands, and we were on her clan property). Reason and logic affected her little. Her arrogance was almost the match of her abilities, as she teleported herself out of the way of attacks. It wasn’t enough. As she charged at Yasha, I shot her in the throat, followed by Tomoe repeatedly stabbing her in the head.  
  
All in all, the session lasted just shy of five hours. Next time, search the ninjas, search the woman, and introductions with Yasha.

* * *

  
Today’s Exalted session was a bit less interesting to read about. Still had fun playing it. Looking over the bodies, we discovered that they were Raksha , Fair Folk from beyond the edges of the world. Our rescue of Amaterasu had presumably prompted this, and she was likely to be a target in the coming invasion. The four of us hurried back to the capital (after I made sure that the booze we came for was also heading back). After warning Amaterasu and the secretary of state, we split up. I went back to the central shrine to help with the crowds that had come for Amaterasu’s blessings (delivered at sixty per minute) while Yasha, Yaohua and Tomoe’s shapeshifting lover went off to spar (Tomoe went with them to watch the shirtless men).  
  
EDIT: And I forgot to mention that Yaohua continued his long streak of flirting by charming a street vendor out of a snack just by smiling at her.That puts him at half of the female acolytes at my shrine, Amaterasu herself but not, strangely enough, Kushi, the drunken, lustful bisexual MILF.

* * *

  
In today’s Exalted session… Prince Yaohua’s player couldn’t make the start of the session, so he got dragged away by a bunch of noble women he had seduced, presumably during the shirtless sparring session with Yasha. Yasha went off to wander around the palace gardens, leaving the women of the party to coordinate a response to the threat of the invaders from beyond reality.  
  
I, Tomoe, the goddess Amatersu, the Prime Minster Shima Tsustui and maybe some other people who didn’t get a speaking part, debated on if we should cancel the festival to better prepare for the invasion. We decided not to, which was rather upstaged by Amy’s announcement. She is adopting Tomoe as her daughter, and the title for the ruler of the Land of the Rising Sun is the Son of Heaven. I’m sure you can see where this is going.  
  
So could Lord Shima, whose cousin is the current Son of Heaven, and who’s clan has enjoyed a long period of ascendancy over the other clans. Far too composed to give any clues to what he was feeling, beyond squeezing his tea cup hard enough to crack it.  
  
Meanwhile, Yaohua’s player had joined us. And Yaohua was noticing that the orgy he was in didn’t quite add up. The faces of the women blurred together, as did the trees. Fighting past the illusion, he managed to put his sword to the throat of the woman casting the spell on him. She was barely quick enough to put a throwing star to his throat in turn, and there was a bit of a standoff. It was resolved after he took my joking suggestion to kiss her seriously.  
  
Seducing her fairly easily, he got on top of her literally in addition to metaphorically. She started spilling the names of the people she had been sent to spy or, if possible, assassinate. While this was happening, Yasha had noticed that there were two pairs of legs sticking out from a bush in the garden.  
  
Recognizing Yaohua, he hovered around, waiting for a chance to tease him. And then the assassins started coming.  
  
The first one was Lord Shima’s sectary, wearing robes with the clan emblem (personally, I think he’s a possibly mind-whammied catspaw). Yaohua literally disarmed him, while Yasha’s attack just hit a tree. Guards appeared in the distance, and another blade was thrown towards them. And then the session ended after almost five hours.  
  
Also, Amatersu sees me as a sister, has no incest taboo, and is attracted to both me and Tomoe. And since Amatersu also likes Yaohua, and Tomoe refuses to have sex with anyone unless her shape-shifting lover Red Hare is with them, a large bed will be needed.

* * *

  
Previously in Exalted, Prince Yaohua had seduced the female assassin and literally disarmed the male assassin.  
  
In this session, the shadow of the maimed assassin contorted and leaped from him, coiling around the body of one of the guards. Yasha acted quickly and got him in a hold, pinning him to the ground. By now, both of their Anima barriers were flaring, lighting up the palace and the grounds with their light. That was enough to cage the shadow, making it withdraw from the light they shed. It was also enough to bring me, Tomoe, Amasterua and the Prime Minister (a dragonblooded exalt) out to the gardens to see what was happening. Yaohua blurted out a quick summary of what was happening. Drawing upon my years of religious training, I recognized the shadow as a rare kind of ghost, used by necromancers to kill targets. Living essence is both food and poison to them, and Exalted essence doubly so. The only way to kill it is to surround it with light, with the cunning trick of the possesse’s internal organs counting as a shadow.  
  
Traditionally, the solution is to immolate the victim. But I knew how to do a purification ritual. Normally, that would call for the proper incense, a consecrated environment, so on and so forth. I didn’t have that, but I did have four Solar Exalted and a goddess of the dawn. I was able to adapt it to the circumstances, even using the topiary that had caught on fire as a light source to surround the guard. As a introduction to calling upon the Unconquered Sun to purify the guard and burn away the corruption, I lambasted the ghost, reviling it demanding it fully reveal itself that it may be destroyed, to help set the world may be more perfectly aligned with its absence.  
  
And it worked. I got 14 successes on the roll, and the spirit left the guard, rising twenty feet into the air and burning into nothingness. Then, after roughly two and a half hours of play, the session ended.  
  
To quote the GM: Exp+3, for dealing with something that I intended to be a boss fight without even rolling join battle.

* * *

  
Today’s Exalted session was a good one. It was stopped from being great by me having to leave early, but the other players still had a good time.  
  
We interrogated the female spy Prince Yaohua had seduced, discovering that she was indeed an agent of the Fair Folk, one of five sisters forming thieves of loyalty and assassins for the Shogun of Five Stones. Her sisters have already returned from their missions in The Land of the Rising Sun, and she does not believe that the ghost we defeated last time was sent by her faction. The list of names she had been given was passed on to Tomoe, who deduced that those people had been unwilling compromised by her and her sisters. By this point, she was quite worked up since Yaohua had been edging her since the session before the last one.  
  
Before he scooped her off to bed, Yaohua asked her what her name was. She was quite confused by the question, and Yaohua ended up giving her the name of Mènghuàn (Meng, for short). As one last thing, he promised to Lord Shima that he would get a new pair of hands for Shima’s secretary, who Yaohua had disarmed two sessions ago. And with that, the party broke up. I went to go have pizza with my family make sure the victims of the ghost are thoroughly purified, Yaohua took Meng to bed, and Tomoe took Red Hare (her werehorse Lunar lover) to bed, and Yasha started wandering around the palace.  
  
After a bit of wandering, Yasha decided to investigate the names on the list he had overheard. Despite being in the country for less than twenty four hours, he:   
  
<ST_Valette> Somehow, despite any familarty with the local social scene, and without any knowledge of the local nobility, you identify one of the names and link it with a face. One of the ministers in charge of feeding the city.  
  
Following the old woman back to the palace, his attempts at stealth were greatly helped by Yaohua/Meng and Tomoe/Red Hare. More exactly, he was helped by the fact that, as I said in the account of rescuing Kushi a few months ago, Tomoe has an excellent set of lungs on her. The palace walls were shaking, and if glass was common enough to be used as windows, they would have shattered. Meng and Yaohua were adding to the cause, though this time, the floor underneath them remained intact. He did manage to synchronize her pleasure with Tomoe’s shouts, however.  
  
Despite searching the minster’s quarters, Yasha was unable to find anything. He said he was going to kock the sixty-year old woman over the back of the head, but a “Are you sure you want to do that?” from the GM made him reconsider. (If it had been Yaohua, I’m sure he would have seduced the minister into telling him everything.) And with that, the session wrapped up.  
  
Also, the events of the night were good enough for Tomoe to let her develop a Charm, letting her shout to stun enemies.

* * *

  
After far too long, we finally had another Exalted session. It opened with Hei, my character, taking care of a group of farmers who had come to get blessings from Amaterasu. Setting up an impromptu soup kitchen, they got fed while getting blessings from me as well. Since I was flaring my caste mark, some of the children thought I _was_ Amaterasu. Meanwhile, a rather clumsy priestess got so distracted by the sight of a naked Red Hare that she could barely give Tomoe a message. Meanwhile, Prince Yaohua and his pet Fae ninja Meng had ended up in some room or another. He woke up quite pleasantly due to Meng’s ministrations involving her head over his crotch. As he was enjoying himself, the door opened. And what do you know, it was Lord Shima’s (the _former_ ruler of the country) bedroom. He got to see the foreign companion of the lady who had taken his job (Tomoe), naked, in his bed, with the creature that had recently been attempting to destabilize the country in preparation for an invasion.  
  
He handled it fairly well, all things considered. Things went a bit better when Yaohua helped him get dressed for the day while having Meng give him a shoulder massage, to the extent that Shima’s accepted the new order. Afterwards (and Yaohua getting dressed in turn), the prince went down to the temple kitchens to indulge in his love of cooking. While there, the priestess from earlier proved inept enough at washing vegetables to end up with her robe soaked and a daikon pressing somewhere sensitive.  
  
Meanwhile, Amaterasu had arrived (hungover), so I went back to the palace to help Tomoe deal with her greatly expanded workload. After clearing up some bureaucratic difficulties, we decided to check on the Minister of Agriculture, who hadn’t been seen all day. Her name had appeared on a list of targets who were to have their loyalties switched by fae assassins. When the two of us arrived, Tomoe opened the door to discover that the room had become overgrown with plants, bushes growing from the floor mats, and flowers unleashing a actually visible pink haze.  
  
And there the session ended.

* * *

A very long session today for Exalted, covering about twenty minutes worth of action. Last time, Tomoe and I were staring into the overgrown apartment of the Minister of Agriculture (given the name of Akane Tsutuski). A runner was sent to get my bow and Youhua from the shrine as Tomoe started to cut her way through the overgrowth. Yasha, meanwhile, circled around to the outside of the apartment and tried to enter through the window. They both noticed a sweet fragrance released from the vines as they were cut, and Tomoe saw a flickering green light deeper inside. Since it was a narrow doorway, and punching plants doesn't do that much, I stayed a few steps back and started calling on whoever had done this to reveal themselves and account for their actions.  
  
After a bit of back and forth with the voice who answered, the conversation ended with the distinct sound of flesh getting stabbed. By this time, both Yasha and Tomoe had made their way deeper inside. Yasha had found a large, human-sized, cocoon-like emerald that was the source of the light. Tomoe had found a perfectly normal ninja with a perfectly normal knife in her leg, from where she had stabbed herself to keep herself from obeying me. I, sadly, flubbed my rolls and got a lungful of the happy gas. (Yasha had gotten a much smaller dose of it).  
  
Tomoe's forceful interrogation of the perfectly normal ninja revealed that she was one of the agents of the Shogun of the Five Stones, and Meng's sister (for what a term like that is worth with a Fae) And that she had been given three emeralds (to see and command with) and a message to use on the Minister. Yasha's attack on the crystal chrysalis forced her to abandon the interrogation and stop him. She cut off the ninja's hands, at which point she was no longer normal, and noticed by the rest of us. Tomoe stopped Yasha because she wanted to find out more about what was happening before destroying (or unleashing) anything. However, shards from the ice sword Yasha had created flew off and punctured the cocoon, adding a black mixture to its color. I wasn't doing anything beyond having a too wide smile on my face.  
  
Right at this point, Yaohua arrived with Meng and my bow. He tried to tend to me and the rapidly bleeding ninja. Meanwhile, Tomoe decided that the emerald couldn't be salvaged, and cut in half in a single blow. The force sent the gem through several interior walls, with Tomoe, Yasha and I close behind it. Arriving, we saw (as we all expected) the bisected Minister of Agriculture. She had an emerald in her forehead, and two more replacing her eyes. In her last moments, she tried to ask Tomoe what was happening and why Tomoe had killed her. With her dying breath, she responded to Tomoe's unsympathetic response by saying she would be a monster indeed.  
  
And then she died, turning into a fountain of peony blossoms. And the session ended.

* * *

Not much happened in today's Exalted session, even though it lasted three hours. The peony blossoms that had been Minister Akane had turned into fell onto the floor and melted into it, leaving behind a discolored area. Yasha, rather foolishly in my opinion, knelt down to get a better look at it while _I_ backed way the fuck up. I wasn't hugely surprised when a tentacle burst out from the floor and wrapped itself around his neck. Nor was I hugely surprised when, despite getting hurled into the ceiling, it just made him made.  
  
Due to some lopsided rolls, Yasha and Tomoe acted twice to Yaohua's and mine once. They defeated the tentacles before we could do anything, with Yasha punching them so hard the floor collapsed, taking him with it. Underneath the floor was, surprise surprise, the room from the floor below. Now filled with a few inches of red, smelling liquid, and also Yasha. After some discussion, I shot a blessed arrow into the liquid, wanting to see what would happen. That another tentacle lashed out to destroy the arrow in flight was enough of a confirmation for Yaohua to unleash a much more potent attack on it, now that we knew (or thought we knew, at least) that it, whatever it was, didn't like exposure to the Sun's light.  
  
And the GM said it was bedtime for them before we found out what exactly the sword strike did, beyond spattering Yasha with the liquid.

* * *

After a while, we had another Exalted session. And boy, it was a doozy.  
  
Upon seeing the red goop was draining underneath the floor, Yasha jumped up to safety. As he did so, both he and Yaohua heard some rumblings from something very big. Tomoe used this moment to yell for everyone to evacuate the palace, and for priests to start containment warding. And, per the session where she was getting fucked by her lover, when Tomoe yells, _everyone_ hears her.  
  
Almost as soon as Yasha touched down on the level above the room, a giant wooden fist came crashing up through the floorboards and punched him. That sent him straight through the ceiling, but Yasha's much too tough to actually be injured by that. He came falling back down, drawing his arm back in a punch as the wooden fist did the same.  
  
The end result was that while Yasha mangled it, he got sent over the horizon and out of the game (because Yasha's player realized Exalted isn't the game system for them).  
  
After that, both Yaohua and Tomoe did a bang up job on bringing the 30 foot tall wooden armored samurai to the ground, with Yaohua actually cutting her in half and following her down in her collapse from the fourth story to the first. (Also, we'd managed to ruin the palace. Thankfully, everyone had started running when Tomoe had told them to.) Tomoe jumped down to them as well, intent on finishing the job. Sadly, all she managed to do in her flight was impale her sword on the neckguard.  
  
It was finally time for me to act (because I have crap initiative) and I joined them down there. Rather than using my bow (which Yaohua had gone to such pains to get for me), I instead took a different path. I called upon the divine power that had elevated to enter this dying woman, the Lady of Threefold Blossoms, and to expunge the taint of unreality from her.  
  
And The Unconquered Sun listened.  
  
A shaft of sunlight appeared, striking me and pressing upon me an air of curiosity. I repeated my request, begging Him to expose the Lady to the least fraction of His might and splendor and purify her of the Wyld that had consumed her, turning an old woman into this monster. The Unconquered Sun used me as the instrument to do so, filling me with light and charging me to cleanse her.  
  
With the divine power surging through me, I reached out and saw the Lady of Threefold Blossoms with new eyes. I could see her growing through the palace, frantically trying to gather every drop of Essence she could and extend her influence. I could no allow that, and drew her into me, letting the divine fire stoked within me burn away every bit of corruption and unholy blemish, leaving whatever remained.  
  
The Lady had just enough time for terror to enter her wooden eyes before they burst into flames. And then, at that moment-  
  
the session had to end for the week so some of us could eat. Looking forward to the conclusion next week, though!

* * *

A fairly short Exalted session today, since the GM was running out of energy. Still, the story progressed.  
  
The palace had caught on fire in the fight, and the Unconquered Sun channeling divine power through me did nothing to help matters. Since I was still out of it, Tomoe grabbed me and carried me out of the palace, while Yaohua rescued the largest fragment of the Lady of Threefold Blossoms, even as it was engulfed in divine flames, stripping down to his pants to get padding to protect his hands.  
  
After exiting the burning building, Tomoe put me down so she could hug Red Hare and babble about seeing the Unconquered Sun. Yaohua, meanwhile, was closely watching the lady, waiting to see what would be left. I had more or less recovered by that point, which meant I started running damage control, directing firefighters, sending messengers out, that sort of thing. And going to talk to Lord Shima, who had returned to the palace to see his apartment in flames (shortly before the roof collapsed where those rooms would be) and the loss of all the tax records and other infrastructure needed to run a country.  
  
He took the news of what had happened fairly well, and only _looked_ like he was having an heart attack. My explanation of what had happened drew a crowd that a still shirtless Yaohua managed to inspire with a speech about how Amaterasu and the Unconquered Sun had both graced the country with their presence.  
  
At this point Amaterasu appeared, coming back from the temple. I quickly and quietly explained what had happened, to her great shock. The session ended with her making a bad excuse and hurrying away, to check on her store of Celestial brandy, according to the GM.  
  
Disapointed that I didn't get to find out what happened to Minster Akane/Lady of Threefold Blossoms , but it is what it is.

* * *

A very fun Exalted session today.  
  
The remnants of the Threefold Lady finished burning, confirming that there was nothing inside. Minister Akane had been completely subsumed by whatever corruption the (captured) fae assassin used. Also, the palace had completely burned down. Still, that was no reason to stop the festival celebrating Amaterasu's return, and not just because it was much too late to stop the rural citizens from pouring in.  
  
Tomoe went to meet and greet the various clan leaders, with Red Hare ensuring she got the proper respect as the soon-to-be Empress of the nation (pants-shitting terror is _like_ respect). I made sure the first day of the three day long festival went smoothly, and also talked with my friends/quasi-family from my shrine who had come in from the countryside. Yaohua... well, in the very first game session, before I started posting these summaries, Yaohua was recovering from injuries at my shrine. While there, a shrine maiden named Mei smashed into him and dumped a bucket of water all over herself.  
  
Yaohua, being Yaohua, saw a cute girl in clinging, wet clothing and instantly turned on the charm. He managed to get her even more wet, and only stopped seducing her because Tomoe and I entered the room. He still made quite an impression on her and most of the other surviving young women in the shrine. Later, he sent Mei a romantic note that further infatuated him with Mei and the others.  
  
And now most of the Reino shrine maidens were in the capital, including Mei. Yaohua quickly found them, as well as the clumsy capital shrine maiden I talked about a few sessions ago. He turned on the charm, quite effectively. By the time he actually took Mei dancing, the other shrine maidens were clutching at each other... for support, and he had even managed to impress City Mother, the goddess of the city. And Yaohua didn't even know the goddess was there!  
  
This turned out not to be such a good idea. A wave of Essence-fueled lust swept over the city, hitting the switches for every non-divine woman in the city except for Tomoe and myself (and it was a very close thing). An orgy instantly broke out, with Yaohua in the center of it with half a dozen shrine maidens. Some ways away, I was barely able to keep my fellow shrine-maidens doing their jobs, and that was with the promise of relief as soon as their shifts were over.  
  
The orgy lasted most of the afternoon, finally dying down as night set. During the night, Tomoe and Red Hare had some much less destructive and quieter sex session than normal, while Yaohua continued to fuck Mei, and presumably any other shrine maidens around, to the point of getting a dot in Cult. Since I hadn't gotten any sleep the previous night, I just talked with a few close friends and had an early bed.  
  
During the second day, Yaohua continued the orgy, though it was only with him, Mei, and a few shrine maidens instead of the city wide event. Tomoe made some speeches to the masses while I listened to the rumor mill.

> [21:35] <ST_Valette> The common folk speak of several things. The beautiful new daughter of the sun is making a growing stir, with many saying that they've seen, and even spoken to her.  
[21:35] <ST_Valette> And her towering foreign boytoy.  
[21:35] <Liang_Yaohua> Ouch.  
[21:35] <ST_Valette> Another thing spoken of is the event yesterday. Or, rather, not spoken of.  
[21:35] <ST_Valette> Implied.  
[21:35] <ST_Valette> Asked about.  
[21:36] <ST_Valette> Blushed while discussing.  
[21:36] <Liang_Yaohua> ("So, was it just me, or...?")  
[21:36] <ST_Valette> The goddess herself is mentioned, along with you, Hei.  
[21:37] <TomoeGozen> boytoy in a positive way, or GAIJIN boytoy *glares angrily in Foresttongue* negative way?  
[21:37] <ST_Valette> Many have taken it into their heads that you're another goddess. Either a new one, or a visitor. Amaterasu's sister, daughter, cousin, mother, or lover.  
[21:37] <Liang_Yaohua> Three out of five ain't bad?  
[21:38] <ST_Valette> Boytoy in the "She can't possibly intend to marry a foreigner, right?"  
[21:38] <ST_Valette> Way.  
[21:38] <TomoeGozen> Ah.  
[21:38] <ST_Valette> Many think he's simply a bodyguard.  
[21:39] <ST_Valette> Or a summoned demon, because look at that hair?  
[21:39] <ST_Valette> And the sheer size of him. Humans don't get that large, right?  
[21:39] <Liang_Yaohua> He hears that a lot.  
[21:39] <HeiReino> Yeah, I thought it was Red Hare, not Yaohua  
[21:41] <ST_Valette> Yaohua isn't mentioned so much by name, but rather by deed. Which hasn't been connected to him.

And that was a wrap for the less eventful second day. On the third, and next session, Tomoe formally assumes rulership over the country.  
  
Generally a great session all around. We all had an excellent time.

* * *

A very Hei-centric session today. As I was walking through the streets, a well-dressed young man tried to put his arm over my shoulder and tug me close to him. That didn't come close to actually happening of course. I ducked out of the way and gave him a very unamused look and stare. He tried verbally flirting with me, and I was so disgusted I disconnected from the game. (Actually, my internet crapped out right as he delivered the line, but, eh, close enough.)  
  
He said some things that implied he saw through my disguise and knew I was a Solar exalt, through more flirtation. Therefore, I invited him off the street and back to the temple. Once we got to a private room, he assumed he had charmed me, and kept on flirting, including giving a ridiculously false name of Hats. I, on the other hand, remembering the three assassination attempts in the past four days, and especially how one of them (Meng) had tried to seduce Yaohua before killing him, wasn't receptive at all. There was one amusing moment when, after mentioning the previous sentence, he assumed that the target of the seduction attempt had been a fellow shrine maiden, and vowed to avenge her. The air was let out of him when he heard it was 'merely' a prince. Also, Yaohua's player remarked on ' I love that the political climate is such that hitting on the high priestess marks you as a national security threat. Like, carrying a sword into a public building wouldn't be as bad as making doe eyes at one of the Sun's Chosen, at this point.'  
  
Getting tired of his repeated evasions regarding his true name and history, I turned up the browbeating, getting him to admit that he had come from the Tsutsui estates. Still suspecting him to be an assassin, I then 'suggested' that he come with me to meet Lord Shima, who would surely be glad to see one of his clansmen in the city for the celebration.  
  
He did not take that well, and immediately started to try to weasel out of it. That, of course, only hardened my suspicions, and I told him that the only choice he had left was how dignified of a state he would be in when he met Lord Shima.  
  
He tried to make a break for it, dashing for the door. I knocked him to the floor, and got another shrine maiden to slap a warding seal on his forehead and drag him to Lord Shima. On the way, I ran into Tomoe and Red Hare, who instantly recognized him. They didn't say anything, but came with me to the converted tea house.  
  
Once there, Lord Shima didn't even need to remove the seal to recognize his son. Hatsuri looked like he was ready to be anywhere else in the world, doing anything else. I left him in the care of his father, with unknown results.  
  
That took most of the session, with the remainder being about Yaohua debriefing Meng about her captured sister. Also, got something for you all below. A threesome between Kushi, Tomoe and Red Hare.

* * *

In today's session, Tomoe got a _very_ fancy stick and hat.  
  
Today was her coronation as she assumed rulership over the Land of the Rising Sun. The first thing she did on this very important day was throw a pillow at the person trying to wake her. Luckily, Yaohua managed to dodge it, though it did hit Lord Shima in the face. The perfect start to the day where his clan loses its traditional primacy in favor of a girl three times younger than him, and with a foreign husband. The two of them helped Tomoe choose what to wear for the ceremonies and what speech to give the crowd.  
  
At the temple, before dawn, Tomoe was formally adopted by Amaterasu and had a _very_ awkward breakfast with her. Later on, she was formally presented to the Unconquered Sun, the local gods, the nobles and the masses in that order. Yaohua talked her up with the humans, and I helped her with the proper rituals for the gods. And then it was time for the speech, where both Tomoe and her player were very nervous about, not helped by how intensely the sun was beating down on everyone.  
  
Luckily, some good thinking and some excellent rolls meant that she aced the speech, which was a mixture of a call to arms against the fae, and a promise of future prosperity. At the end of the speech, a burning beam of sunlight lanced down from the heavens, centered on Tomoe. When it ended (and before the smoke from the fires it started could obscure the view), Tomoe was holding a naginata gifted to her by the Unconquered Sun. The entire crowd cheered, their morale greatly boosted by the undeniable proof that the greatest of the gods favored their new leader.  
  
And that was a wrap for the session and probably for the festival. Soon it will be time to get down to the war.

* * *

In today's Exalted session, I didn't do much, so you all might as well stop reading.  
  
We opened with myself and Amaterasu talking over tea (hers was spiked with wine). She asked me what I knew of sorcery, and I answered that the costs to learn it were as potent as the powers it offered. She offered to teach me after asking me of what one of my greater fears was ("That I will fail. That the Immacualte Faith, the Fae, the necromancers, and even the petty, corrupt lordlings across Creation will tear down all of what it means to live properly under the Unconquered Sun. That I will die, or even worse, that I will make the wrong choices, say the wrong things, and that those who would listen to me will turn their backs on me"). Then the subject of what I could sacrifce came up, and I didn't have an answer, IC or OOC. Luckily, the scene then shifted over to Yaohua.  
  
He was, as usual, in the middle of an orgy in the middle of the street. A cross selection of mikos, noble ladies, the city watch, and any other female interested in joining in. As Yaohua thrust into one barely dressed noble girl, he noticed that there was an odd reflection of light on a rooftop. He went to investigate, jumping up to the roof, the girl still wrapped around him (in two senses of the word). Once there, he didn't see anything beyond the beautiful woman milking his cock. Then he noticed the blade held against his neck.  
  
The owner of the blade was very unhappy with what Yaohua was doing to her niece. Despite being drunk and... _distracted_, Yaohua was able to remember that the girl he was with _had_ been wearing clothes with the Oda clan markings. At least knowing how to respectfully address the mystery woman, he started talking, though both his words and her grinding of teeth were rather drowned out by the cries of Lady Oda the younger. The younger Oda did display _excellent_ grammer and coherency as she described what was happening to her. It didn't do much to endear Yaohua to her aunt, though.  
  
Yaohua continued his skillful tending to the girl until she passed out from pleasure. Once she did, he turned to look at the other woman. It was, surprise, surprise, the last remaining Dragonblooded exalt in the country, and, until recently, the greatest warrior around. However, she had been somewhere secluded long enough that she didn't even know that Amaterasu had vanished (and then returned) or that Tomoe had become a Solar Exalt. After some flirtation on his part and some rage on hers, the now named (and still unconscious) Chiyoko was brought to the Gozen manor to be put to bed, while Yaohua tried to explain everything that happened to the out of touch Shimae in the past few months.  
  
Meanwhile, Tomoe had finished outlining her plans for the country to the nobles, and had been told by an embarrassed guard that a flying cock monster had briefly appeared over the courtyard. After letting the guard confirm that it wasn't Red Hare, she headed directly to Yaohua's quarters.  
  
Once there, she stepped into Yaohua explaining to an unamused Shimae that her niece, and the Oda clan heiress, had come on to him. Tomoe vouched for Yaohua's description of the political changes, and displayed her new authority be flaring her aura (putting on a blinding light show, for those who don't know). She also channeled her triumph over her long-simmering jealousy of Shimae being the better warrior into the display.  
  
It had quite the effect on Shimae, who couldn't decide to go white from shock and a bit of fear, or red, from, well, something else. Yaohua had enough experience reading the female body to recognize how turned on Shimae was from Tomoe's display. Tomoe took advantage of this by soothing over the dispute between her and Yaohua, and also requesting a challenge to Shimae once the war was over. Shimae was fine with both, and Yaohua tactfully left the room at that point to let Shimae properly pledge devotion to her new liege.  
  
And yes, there will be an omake about this, just like there was for Tomoe, Red Hare and Kushi.

* * *

We only had a short session today, due to time constraints. Still, stuff _did_ happen.  
  
The two most important things both revolved around Tomoe. The first was that she finally saw a doctor (Yaohua) about the nausea she'd been having waking up. And surprise, surprise, all those times she'd had sex with Red Hare in his male, human had the traditional result. She's now pregnant. Both she and Red Hare are very happy about that, to the extent that Red Hare made an overly enthusiastic wave of his arm, and sent Lord Shima through two (paper) walls. Still, he was alright and helped Tomoe get down to the second big bit of business.  
  
Namely, planning on how to counter the Fae invasion. The plans drawn up were mostly about how to blunt any attacks while an army was gathered. Since Tomoe is _very_ good at all things martial (and quite a few things marital), she managed to draw up a system of defenses that, once built, would defeat any mortal army. Perhaps if there had been a single all-mortal army in all of history, that would be a great achievement, instead of a good one.  
  
Also, Red Silk (our Sidereal mentor/party assembler) showed up. He poorly hid the fact that he was here on his vacation time, but did say that he had the utmost confidence in three Solars, one Lunar, four Dragon-blooded and a major goddess to turn aside a Fair Folk invasion.  
  
Not all that much, compared to some sessions. On the plus side, I have two omakes which I'll be posting momentarily.

* * *

Today in Exalted, a whole month passed.  
  
It was pretty much all downtime, though, so it got passed over very quickly while we figured out what to spend our experience points on. Tomoe and Yaohua both became even more Glorious Solar Murderblenders than they already are. And, on the side, Yaohua trained in medicine, finally getting the skill to reattach the hands of the aide he thoroughly disarmed during the possession ghost assassination attempt a few months ago. He demonstrated his new skill by dropping in at all the clinics and sickhouses around the capital, healing up whoever was there and even giving the elderly a permanent boost of vigor. Tomoe, meanwhile, actually got down to the business of learning how to be a empress, instead of just the most dangerous person in the room.  
  
Also, with three shattered pens and much grinding of teeth, Lord Shima drew up a proposal to include Yaohua as part of the local pantheon. He was just barely able to get himself to endorse Yaohua as a patron if healing and generosity instead of Yaohua's _usual_ interests. Tomoe agreed, formally adopting Yaohua into the divine clan (as opposed to the mortal clan she was born in), with some complicated arrangements regarding which one of them was the older sibling that depended on whether they were in the Land of the Rising Sun or Yaohua's homeland.  
  
I, in the meantime was learning _magic!_ You might think that being able to conjur up multi-sense illusions or dancing so well that people would die for me would be magic already, but you'd be wrong. I spent the entire month inside Amaterasu's spirit home, learning how to ride clouds and burn any mundane material and only that material. Also, spent a lot of time either having sex with her, or trying to convince that I really needed to study, and shouldn't be having sex right now. I still put my priestess training to good use though, using my knowledge of how she liked to be worshiped in a rather more intimate setting than normal.  
  
Our training session ended with Amaterasu giving me a robe she had woven herself that actually meant I was protected by more than just my good looks (though I'm sure there's some ability that lets hot Solars apply their beauty to defense checks). Also, it looked like any piece of clothing I wanted it to and is constantly dancing with multi-colored lights.  
  
And next week, for real this time, the campaign starts, since we'll be counter-striking two weeks before the Shogun is ready to launch his invasion.

* * *

After far too long, we finally had another Exalted session. Both I and Tomoe had to bail early, so it was mostly the Yaohua show today. And what a show it was, since the session lasted some seven hours.  
  
The army has finally begun to move out of the capital, towards the East, where the unreal forces of the Shogun of the Five Stones marches towards us. Some thing quickly became apparent. Scouts reported seeing giant, impossible birds flying overhead. Red hare went to investigate, being far hardier than any mortal scout, and far more wise in the wilderness than any of us. _He_ reported that the birds had riders, brightly armored warriors with lances and bows. Quite a few of them, too. Thankfully, I know a spell that can call a cloud down from the heavens to serve as a mount for me and one other, so their aerial advantage won't be the unanswerable asset they hoped for.  
  
Tomoe examined the reported movements and realized that the birds and their riders were _not_ scouts. Instead, they were heralds, announcing the arrival of the Shogun, and the irresistible force he would bring to bear against all who opposed him. She was not impressed. Also, that the actual scouts he was sending up were being chewed by Warden, the rather territorial god of the forest that made up the eastern border of the country. Also, he was doing the same to our scouts, which rather limited intel gathering.  
  
Reminded of the 'Five Stones' part of his title, Yaohua asked Meng about the emeralds that had been used by her sister to turn Minister Akane into Lady of Threefold Blossoms. She (retroactively) had grabbed all three of them, and presented two to Yaohua. After a bit of questioning, it came out that she had _eaten_ the other one for a powerup. That gave us all a bit of pause, OOC and IC. Yaohua did some heavy flirting in front of us and the generals about cooking a better meal for her next time, but also asked to see the remaining stones.  
  
He then passed them over to me, where I examined them. I confirmed that they were rather potent, with a heavy supply of Wood-aspected Essence in them. With the right rituals, they could be used to turn the forests against invaders, assuming Warden needed any help doing so. Or frankly, any number of other things, including feeding them to Meng.  
  
We held off on a final decision, and instead turned to sending Yaohua (with Meng) to visit Warden, as both Tomoe and I had to leave then. He went inside the forest, after getting permission by making a _very_ nice bowl of rice to offer Warden. It was good enough to get admission, and Yaohua did so, slipping underneath the shadowy trees and guided by a faint breeze blowing around him.  
  
Not all that far in, he was attacked by an ogre. A violent brute, who had the same implausibly high-pressure blood spray as the ninjas we fought at dawn in Kushi's brewery. Yaohua easily dispatched it, before following the breeze once more. He came to a brand new (and rapidly expanding) clearing. Some twenty ogres, under the command of a warrior on birdback, were fighting a green armored warrior. It was obvious at a glance what was happening.  
  
Shooting his name, Yaohua charged into the fray, killing half the ogres in a single blow and went straight on to their leader, while everyone else paused in surprise. With his ranged attack, Yaohua managed to knock the warrior off their roc, and went in for blade to blade combat.  
  
Yoahua is a melee focused Solar, and the warrior was a middling level rakasha. There was only ever going to be one outcome.  
  
Not even the bird's laser eyes could save it or its master. The ogres were even more easily dispatched, with Yaohua tossing Warden a sword he'd brought as a backup sacrifice in case the rice didn't work, and Meng pegging an ogre in the forehead with a throwing star. The bird was killed, and the warrior's armor was cut off of it. Which was functionally the same as killing it, since the Fair Folk are defined by what roles they act out. An offer for an honorable death or parole were both met with blank incomprehension. But Meng had an idea. An idea that was making her drool underneath her half-mask. And it would make her more powerful.  
  
Meng was rather hungry again. She ate the rakasha, in a thankfully undescribed manner. We did get some information, though. Confirmation of the Shogun's overall strategy, and that he was planning to bring his castle right up to the capital and he would himself crush whatever had killed his scouts.  
  
A fun session, and one I would have liked to be more a part of. Next time, hopefully.

* * *

In today's Exalted session, Hei was pushed beyond her limits.  
  
It was only me and the GM in the session today. Therefore, we did something that wouldn't infringe on the storyline too much.   
  
In the early sessions, before I started sharing our adventures, Tomoe, Yaohua and I went into an ancient facility underneath the Land of the Rising Sun's capital. There, we found that the facility was actually a training hall, designed by and for Solars, with rewards to match. The true reward for the original trip was rescuing Amaterasu, but we also got some neat loot out of it. And today, I went back.  
  
Heading into the bowels of the ancient tunnels, I chose a door that bore my caste mark (Zenith). That caste is commonly associated with endurance and overcoming hardships. And boy, did I.  
  
I stepped through the door into a baking desert. The sun pounded down on me, and all around, there were endless sand dunes. There was only one feature, a blurry tower on the horizon. Seeing nothing else to strive for, I started off.  
  
Not on foot, of course, that would be stupid. Instead, I called upon my sorcerous training and summoned a skiff made out of cloudstuff to bear me. I flew over the endless, featureless desert at roughly ninety miles an hour. Thirty minutes later, I was congratulating myself on my ability to fly instead of walk when the weather changed.  
  
My first warning was when a bolt of lightning almost hit me. I dodged, barely, as the clear blue sky abruptly turned into the worst kind of thunder storm. Lightning was striking all around me, and wind was tugging at me, blowing me off course even as I further lost my mark by dodging the bolts. Then, when I straightened myself out, I saw something in between me and where I thought the tower was.  
  
The most noticeable aspect of it were the lightning bolts used as teeth. It was an immense storm dragon, a single eye taller than me. It's skin or fur was as black as night, and it was coming straight for me.  
  
That wasn't enough to stop me. I flew towards it, displaying my caste mark upon my forehead and challenging it. I told it that it would either leave me be or die, and enhanced the effect by summoning some illusions of it dead on the ground as I left it behind.  
  
It worked, momentarily. I flew over it as it cowered, and continued on towards the tower. Then I heard a roar of primal fury behind me. I turned around, and, sure enough, it was following me.  
  
I gave it one last chance, shooting an arrow towards the dragon to warn it off. It ignored it. Then I loosed four more arrows, all of them aimed at one eye.  
  
All four of them hit, bursting the eye and drawing a bellow of rage and pain loud enough to shake my very bones. The fool still tried to follow me, but I outsped it, leaving it far behind as I flew through the storm.  
  
The storm only increased in ferocity as I neared the tower. Sheet lightning beat down, and the winds were a veritable hurricane. The tower itself was of grey stone, rearing above a rain-slick outcrop of black rock. It was a hundred and fifty feet from the bottom to the door.  
  
I knew I couldn't bring the skiff in that close. I would be dashed against the rocks. The only way to reach the tower would be to land and climb the slippery rock in the pouring rain and the howling wind.  
  
So that was exactly what I did. I was still fresh, unlike the people who would have had to reach here on foot over a twenty hour trek. Not that I was any good at climbing, but at least it was something.  
  
Through much labor, I reached the top of the outcrop, seeing a closed door in front of me. There were a few questions that were mainly to see if I really was a Solar Exalted, and then I was let in.  
  
Once I was inside, I noticed that the main feature of the room were a pair of staircases, spiraling upwards towards the domed ceiling. At the very top, I could just see a hint of light.  
  
There was obviously nothing for it. I started up the staircase without a moments rest. And on the very first step, I could see what this test would be. I felt my weight increase. Not by much, but it did grow. And then again on the second step.  
  
Gritting my teeth I kept on climbing, taking step after step. My body trembled with fatigue as the weight on my shoulders grew greater and greater. There was a secret at the top of the tower, and I was going to find it, to bring back arms or knowledge to help in the war.  
  
I wasn't strong enough. I collapsed, five steps from the top, my legs unable to support me. I wasn't going to allow that. Fighting through the pain (and the horrible internet connection), I crawled up the steps, dragging my body upwards until I finally reached the platform.  
  
The crushing weight was greatest of all there. In front of, dangled a chain, over a hole in the platform. The chain led upwards, into a hidden room I could see nothing of. Below, there was only the distant floor. And around, there was a gap of five feet.  
  
The test, and the price of failure, was obvious. Once more I pushed myself on, breaking my body as I lunged for the chain. I made it, hurting myself in the process. And finally, inch by inch, hand over hand, I crawled upward.  
  
The chain led into a pleasant lounge. There was music from an unseen source, comfortable chair and pillows scattered around underneath the warm lightning. I gratefully sunk down in one, resting my tried, bruised body, even though I knew this too was a test.  
  
After a few minutes, I shook off the unnaturally strong lure of sleep and stood up. Lo and behold, there was a door in one wall that hadn't been there before. Striding over, I opened it.  
  
On the other side, there were an uncountable number of sandstone plinths and shelves, each with artifacts on them. Weapons, scrolls, armor, musical instruments, all sorts of ancient items. I only had eyes for the books, though.  
  
I choose as my reward a small pocketbook, like a diary, bound in cloth. Inside, some 40% of the pages were written in the Old Realm script, though encoded. The other pages were blank, though I could tell that they did not have to be, and that certain ways could reveal what was on them.  
  
My reward chosen, the other prizes dissolved, and a portal to the starting point of the hall opened. I gratefully stepped through, eager first for bed and rest, and then to decode what ancient knowledge was in these pages.

* * *

Today's Exalted session was shorter than normal.  
  
Mostly, it served for us all to get back together. The army finally moved it, and I joined it going directly from the training complex to the temple, and then leaving the city, along with a full dozen shrine maidens ('maidens', after Yaohua) to prepare the weapons for anti-Fae combat. I, sadly, had to ride a horse again to keep up with Tomoe. And, just like last time, my body quickly became so numb that I couldn't feel the pain anymore.  
  
We met up with Yaohua, who told us the good news about how Warden would continue blocking the forest, but would need some appropriate sacrifices of weapons and arrows that had seen battle. Easy enough to arrange, especially since the day ended with us arriving at the desired battlefield Tomoe had chosen. And, even better, we can be pretty sure that the Shogun will meet us on ground of our own choosing to display his matchless power instead of doing what a human would do in this situation.  
  
We just about had time to lay out the roles for the party in the coming battle. Tomoe would command the army (from the front, most likely), while I would fly Yaohua around, eliminating high value targets. And then the session had to end.  
  
On the plus side, I can share with you all a story I wrote that I really didn't expect to become canon. But I'm not complaining.

* * *

We had another excellent Exalted game today.  
  
I was the first to wake up, and I saw thin tendrils of smoke rising above the army's camp, staining the sun. Since it was coming from the east, it was obvious what was happening. The Shogun had arrived with his army. I went to wake Tomoe, and she quickly sent scouts and Red Hare to get more information. While that was happening, Yaohua got down to cooking.  
  
And cooking a very good meal, too. He used the magically potent stones we had taken from the Minister of Agriculture, and cooked a truly wonderful meal for us three, Red Hare and Meng. I won't go into the details (beyond it making Meng vibrate like she was about to explode), but it was like using every single buff item you have just before a boss fight. We drank the soup, as Red Hare shared what he saw, and as the smoke thickened.  
  
The Shogun was advancing behind a wall of fire. Everything was burning in front of him, and behind the fire, came the army. They carried a castle on their shoulders, marching in time to the endless beat of drums.  
  
Yaohua rode off to meet with Warden again, planning to work with him. And it was a good thing, too, since Warden couldn't actually do anything to the advance troops on the other side of the wall of flame. Yaohua (on his horse, Summer Lightning) came up with an idea, though. He rode right to the front of the inferno, close enough that a non-Solar would be dead from the heat. Then he started taunting the leader barely visible on the other side, calling him a coward unwilling to actually fight. It worked, and the rakasha came through a gap in the flames, followed by some lesser warriors.  
  
But before I tell what happened there, I need to wind the clock back a bit.  
  
The plan had been that Yaohua would ride the cloud skiff with me, killing the Fair Folk's aerial forces. That obviously wasn't going to happen now, with the sound of his hooves fading in the distance. But there was still one other ranged fighter in the army, who could actually keep up with a Solar. Kushi Gozen, Tomoe's drunken, lecherous aunt.  
  
Tomoe and I went to find her. We did, pretty quickly, too. We also found some dozen soldiers, all of them naked and hungover, with Kushi sleeping on top of one who was as close to Red Hare in looks as a mortal could be. A naked sergeant admitted what had obviously happened last night, although she couldn't remember any actual details.  
  
Even when dragged off of the soldier, Kushi was still drunkenly asleep. Luckily, Tomoe knows her aunt, and knew how to get her awake enough to take orders. She ordered the nearest naked soldier with the biggest bust back into the tent. Where she promptly fainted, overwhelmed by the alcoholic fumes still filling the tent.  
  
Sighing heavily, as I dispersed the rest of the crowd, Tomoe dragged Kushi over to the soldier, and held her just out of reach, while telling Kushi about the nice rack that was right there in front of her.  
  
It didn't work. All Kushi did was try and semi-consciously grope Tomoe's ass through the armor. Tomoe then threatened Kushi with never getting to have sex with Red Hare again if she didn't wake up right now. Kushi stuck her tongue out at Tomoe and tried to grope her again. Tomoe's patience abruptly ran out at that point. She dragged Kushi over to the nearest barrel of water and threw her aunt into it.  
  
That finally got Kushi sober enough to agree to fly with me. I conjured up the cloud skiff, and we flew into the air, rather leaving Tomoe out of the rest of the session.  
  
Once we were in the air, it didn't take very long to spot Yaohua's light show as he belittled the Fae leader. I dived down, seeing the gap in the flames, and the twelve-foot samurai stepping through, for single combat with Yaohua. So I did the obvious thing.  
  
I shot the Fae four times, each arrow burning straight through him, with the last arrow going straight through his eye.  
  
Yaohua finished him off, and then him and Warden strode through the ashes towards the rest of the Fae's unit, the fire dying with the samurai. Then they started going down the line, killing everyone in their path. Meanwhile Kushi and I kept on flying, heading for the Shogun's mobile palace.  
  
At 90 mph, we quickly reached it. And recognized it. It was clearly a larger, brighter, more colorful copy of the (former) palace of the Land of the Rising Sun, carried by thousands and thousands Fair Folk. Also, there were a bunch of other Fae riding giant, laser eye birds headed towards us.  
  
Kushi and I made quite good work of them, killing or crippling (which, when you're this high up, is the exact same thing) four of them quite quickly. I did win a personal bottle of booze from Kushi, for hitting a distant bird and 'Your arrow punches through the bird's mouth, passing through the entire length of the unfortunate fae mount, before coming out the other end in a shower of rainbows.' Then I almost got ambushed by some more diving out of the sun. Still, it wasn't enough, and we managed to escape, and started shooting down even more.  
  
Meanwhile, Yaohua, Warden and Meng heard the endless rumbling drums of the Shogun's army, and started towards it, having killed many of the Fae creating the wall of fire. Certainly enough for Tomoe and her army to force a breach. And that was where the session ended.  
  
The session ended there, after five hours. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to next time.

* * *

We had another great _Exalted_ session today.  
  
Yaohau and the Warden were busy riding hard through the burned out forest to see what was making the earth shake. They were unhindered in their advance, despite the best attempts of various Fae ninja (since Meng was a significantly better ninja). Cresting a small rise, they saw the Shogun's castle, carried by an army of ten thousand warriors. Far too many to fight, or even do much around the edges (going underneath the compound was just begging for an extremely ignominious end). While they were staring, they saw me, the birds and their riders, and, most importantly, the tallest tower on the palace starting to crawl with lights.  
  
Kushi and I were getting boxed in by the remaining two dozen riders on their multi-colored birds. Finally, we were trapped inside a rainbow sphere as they closed in for the kill. Of course, that meant they were getting close to each other. So it was the perfect time to bust out a spell, Flight of the Brilliant Raptor. A fiery bird that flies to a target and then explodes, coating everything in fire.  
  
I shot it off, and it flew right into the open beak of one bird before detonating. That wiped out four birds, and rather hurt their riders (the fall down to the distant ground probably hurt even more). I flew through the open gap, and OOC, made a joke so bad it got me an XP point. Hot bird on bird action with an explosive finish.  
  
After killing a few more birds (and making Yaohua dodge the falling corpses), I finally got the last of them to flee. Then I noticed the glowing orb on top of the tower, that was growing larger and larger as lines of light flowed into it. And that was _my_ cue to flee. Yaohua already had, since there was nothing just him and Warden could do.  
  
I dove to the ground, holding onto Kushi to make sure she didn't fall out as we went at an almost vertical pitch. And we were still too slow.  
  
The tower fired, hitting the skiff. I managed to get nothing but a slight tingle, thanks to suddenly, heavily, investing in Resistance points. Kushi wasn't quite so lucky.  
  
She didn't die, but she still slumped over, her kimono burned off and her bow gone to who knows were. Also, her hair was kind of on fire. Thankfully, we got below the lip of the palace complex, out of the line of fire.  
  
I joined up with Yaohua, who had barely managed to convince the Warden to retreat, instead of staying to fight every single last Fae (by saying that Tomoe had redrawn the borders of the country to be behind the army, so that he wasn't technically defending the borders right now). After some embarrassingly bad rolls, we managed to get half of Kushi onto Yaohua's lap so he could help her, with the other half hanging over the skiff railing.  
  
Yaohua was able to manipulate Kushi's pressure points and wake her back up. And, being naked, sore and in a handsome guy's lap, Kushi didn't have any questions about what had happened. She crawled into Yaohua's saddle, grinning lasciviously.  
  
I sped on off ahead, calling out a reminder to Yaohua to treat Tomoe's favored aunt well. As if he needed the reminder. Kushi was already all over him, especially when he asked if anywhere still ached.  
  
Meanwhile, Tomoe had been busy keeping the drafted farmers and laborers from freaking out over how the ground underneath them was rhythmically shaking. She managed to get them back to their preparations, preparing earthworks and fire breaks. I arrived to tell her everything that had happened and, not to worry, Kushi may not be with me, but she is still quite alright. Also, quite naked.  
  
On the ride back to the army, Yaohua managed to make Kushi cum several times, though he didn't really _satisfy_ her. One of the methods he used to satisfy her was to imitate me and what he thought I would say during lovemaking. Thankfully for the both of us, I was already back at the army when that happened. The Warden remained silent through the entire thing.  
  
Finally, they arrived at camp. Kushi was still naked, and still ready to keep going, but Yaohua thought Tomoe might not appreciate her aunt getting screwed in front of the entire army. He managed to convince Kushi to get off of him and cover up with his cloak with a promise of a threesome with Meng later.  
  
All of us met, Tomoe hurriedly confirming Yaohua's statement about redrawing the borders, giving him a stink eye for doing so with without telling her (and for ceding land, even temporarily). Kushi went off to get some proper treatment, still naked, and giving some soldiers a sight they'd never forget. The rest of us got ready, restocking on arrows, getting our mana back, all that. And we would need it, since the earthquakes were getting larger and larger, and we could see the castle in the distance.  
  
And then the session ended.

* * *

Today in Exalted we finally had the big battle.  
  
Yaohua joined me on the skiff as the Shogun's vanguard charged into the front lines. The mortal archers did their best (bless their hearts), but I, by myself, still managed to kill an equal number of the giant, heavily-armored warriors as they did. Yaohua pitched in by having me fly the skiff right above ground level, letting him cut the heads off of half a dozen ogres in less then a minute. The remaining twelve smashed into an unshaken line of prepared spears, and, by themselves, died without doing much.  
  
Of course, there was still the rest of the army. A much larger force, though far closer to human. In fact, they looked like soldiers from our side, just slightly _off_. Something about the way the armor hung on them, the way the banners flapped in the breeze showed that they were no mortal army. Though they could still die with ease.  
  
As was proved by the human archers and siege engines firing into them, and me sending two more exploding bird spells into their midst. Nothing more then the rank and file, but it still lessened the pressure. Pressure that got even lesser once Yaohua leapt from the skiff into the middle of an enemy formation, neatly avoiding any and all of the spears, and killing every Fae in a three meter circle in however long a combat round is. Then he leaped back up to the skiff to recover his energy for an equal amount of time before doing the same in a different spot.  
  
I, meanwhile, was seeing what forces were in between the spear fodder and the approaching castle (now visible _through_ the trees, instead of merely over them). And also dealing with the heavily armed samurai who had leaped up into the skiff and was trying to kill me. Yaohua saw the situation I was in and tried to jump back up. By the time he managed to remove his sword from the skull of the last soldier, I had already dealt with the problem. The Fae's smoking, pincushioned corpse slowly fell overboard as Yaohua helped me back onto my feet.  
  
While everyone was doing more than their part, the army was still slowly getting pushed back. That was when Tomoe personally took the field. At the head of six-score cavalry, she charged into the flanks of the Fae army. She did an _extremely_ good job of it, and, helped by an [angry horse](https://youtu.be/RoYij4guSkE), made the enemy practically melt before her. In the entire maneuver, from setting out to riding back, she didn't loose a single horseman.  
  
That combined, with Yaohua killing yet another champion as well as anyone else in reach and Tomoe shouting at the top of her lungs, finally made the army retreat. The Fae started running, even killing each other to be the first away. The Shogun in his castle had its bearers trample the cowards, though, and kept on heading straight towards Tomoe's army.  
  
Right until it reached the pit traps that had been built by the army, and maintained by Shima until that very minute.

> [21:39] <ST_Valette> And it drops down twelve feet.  
  
[21:40] <ST_Valette> Blood fountains into the air.  
[21:40] <ST_Valette> Hundreds of feet into the air, in fact.

The castle was now well and truly grounded. Yaohua and I flew over the outer walls, towards the main building. Tomoe, meanwhile, killed the two guards at the main gates with ease, before kicking the doors down. We all joined in the central courtyard, which was in the form of an octagon, with four walls of gold and four of silver. In the center was a yin/yang symbol. Tomoe belittled the Shogun and what he would do now with a battered castle and no army. There, as we gathered, the doors to the main building opened.  
  
There was a woman there, with a naginata and inhuman eyes, black, with golden irises. On the other end of the courtyard, there was another woman, with dark skin to the first's pale skin, light hair to dark, and gold eyes with black irises. Tomoe engaged in yet more trash talking about fighting the Shogun's bedwarmers while he hid away.  
  
And then, after four hours, it was time for us to wrap this session up. Probably only another session or two before we wrap this up.

* * *

Today in our Exalted session, it took one turn from each of us to kill the midboss.  
  
So, last time, Tomoe was in the middle of the Shogun's courtyard, with one Fae at the gates, and the other at the main door. Yaohua and I were still in my cloud skiff, flying overhead. Tomoe shared her opinions about Fae in general and the two color-swapped women specifically, which seemed to make them a bit mad. As one, they lunged forward, trying to skewer Tomoe on their polearms. One of them actually managed to cut through Tomoe's armor and drew some blood, before bouncing off her muscles. This (her first injury of the campaign) made her very, very mad.  
  
Then, long before Yaohua or I could react (and almost before Tomoe could), they attacked again, and again in sync, trying to cut off Tomoe's head. Tomoe blocked with her own spear, narrowly stopping the scissor-like blades. Then she retaliated, attacking the one who had injured her. Her own blade sunk through the Fae's neck, almost decapitating it. The woman found that amusing, though it was a bit hard for her to laugh while burbling blood.  
  
She didn't seem to find my arrow between the eyes quite so amusing (even with the frankly pitiful damage I rolled), and fell down to the ground, dead. After that, Yaohua jumped off of the skiff, down to the remaining woman, using some fancy moves to make a magical sword appear in front of his _real_ sword. The survivor bit it in half and then almost got _cut_ in half by the real sword following it. It killed her quite dead, too.  
  
And that was that for the two of them. The GM later revealed that, no matter what one we killed, it would have been the fake one, and the 'real' one would have resurrected her twin on her next turn. But since she didn't _get_ a turn in between myself and Yaohua that, along with all her other special abilities that the GM had spent time working on, never got to be shown off. Whoops! Still not as bad as the time I managed to bully a ghost into committing suicide with a single roll.  
  
So yeah, that was the big pre-end boss fight we were all worried about. Got 3 times the normal XP for it too.

* * *

Well, we've done it. We've beaten the Shogun, destroyed his castle and scattered his army.  
  
During the last session, which I didn't write up, Tomoe and Yaohua kicked the main doors of the palace down and stormed inside. I followed, still on the cloud skiff. We were immediately greeted by the best welcoming of all. A lightning bolt to the face.  
  
That, obviously didn't do very much to any of us. We could easily dodge or just flat-out endure it. Still, we couldn't do that forever, and the big doors on the opposite side of the entry chamber just _screamed_ trap. So we went down a side passage, taking more lightning hits and effortlessly killing the occasional fae in our way. That was mostly Tomoe and Yaohua, as the two of them were _really_ working in synch with each other. Finally, after some property damage and murder, we burst into the throne room from an unexpected entrance, and finally saw the Shogun of the Five Stones.  
  
He, in fact, only had four stones on his headdress. And he was dressed in imitation of the Scarlet Empress (the superpowered leader of the only superpower in Creation). I told him what I thought of something that could only imitate an empress in his clothing and home instead of creating something himself. Yaohua then, pro forma, called on him to surrender. None of us were surprised when he refused, or when he launched into the stock villain rant about how he deserves to rule the world.  
  
We were all _very_ surprised when, before any of us could act, he called down another lightning strike that shattered the floor of the throne room, completely destroying it. Except for where Yaohua and Tomoe were standing because they blocked it. (I was on my skiff, so I didn't care about the state of the floor).  
  
Then we were even more surprised when Tomoe and Yaohua attacked, gave it everything they got, and Yaohua only managed to get the equivalent of a paper cut along the Shogun's cheek. That was still a whole lot more then the Shogun thought he could get, though. Before he could counter attack, though, I shot him, pouring every Charm I had into the attack.  
  
And I did no better then Yaohua. It was at that point that we realized something new would be required. And the solution was obvious. He was called the Shogun of the Five Stones, and he had four stones on his headpiece.  
  
Yaohua jumped up onto the rafters to get a better angle to attack the Shogun's hair. But the Shogun attacked first. He leaped up, swinging with such force that Yaohua was driven off of the rafter (and a hole was blown in the ceiling), before he even reached the apex of his leap. But he didn't actually manage to hit Yaohua, and Tomoe was coming up from behind.  
  
Even though Yaohua had just missed his blow to sever the strands of hair holding the gems, Tomoe didn't. In a single blow, she managed to sever all four gems. Meng instantly appeared out of nowhere, grabbed them, and then disappeared again. Not that the Shogun noticed, as, without the gems to help control himself or something, he was jumping _much_ too high now. Straight out through the hole in the roof he had cut, actually.  
  
I followed him up through the shattered roof, and saw a speck of red entering the storm clouds that had formed overhead. So I did the obvious thing. I shot him with four arrows, all of them enhanced to do more damage. (Turns out he was about to become the Stage Two boss! Oops.)  
  
All four of them hit, and all of them did a _lot_ of damage. The Shogun died instantly, reduced to a nasty red salsa that landed in front of Red Hare.  
  
And that was that for the Shogun. After that, we started mopping up. Tomoe went to kill the retreating fae, Yaohua visited the medical tents, regrowing limbs instantly (and insured that there were zero causalities, let alone fatalities), while I supervised the looting of the ruined palace for anything of non-fae make. We got a _lot_ of stuff, most of which Tomoe then distributed to deserving soldiers. The damaged, Orchilium warstrider (mecha), however, she kept.  
  
During sunset, Tomoe and I held a religious ceremony, thanking the Unconquered Sun for his help and praising the troops for their victory. And at the very end, the setting sun set the palace on fire.  
  
And after that, it was back to the capital for a victory parade, several months of to be determined downtime and an end for the session.  
  
And an end for the chapter, as well.

* * *

In today's Exalted session, we took it easy.  
  
It was two months of 'rest' and 'relaxation' as we recovered from the campaign and trained some new abilities. Yaohua was the only one who actually spent a lot of time relaxing (with Mei and Meng, mostly, in between cooking sessions). Tomoe, on the other hand, was busy planning for the country's expansion, which mostly meant negotiating with the Warden to hammer out a scheme where people with the appropriate tokens wouldn't get attacked by him as they crossed the (old) border.  
  
I, meanwhile, was actually _creating_ something. I was whipping up the designs for a manse to build on top of a demense near the capital. It took the entire two months just to draw up the plans, but it was worth it, to present Empress Tomoe with a set of detailed blueprints for a combined armory, vacation home, fortress, temple and research complex. In between, I went to my old home, the Reino shrine, for what may be the last time, to talk to the Abbess about the fate of the bow (a sacred relic from it) that I carried. After roughly an hour of roleplay, I was able to convince her that it would be better served fighting the enemies of the UCS then sitting in its home being revered. There were also mentions of the Dragonblood and her monks who attacked the shrine, forcing me to Exalt (keep this in mind for later arcs).  
  
And then we got the next plot hook urgent call for aid. Red Silk, our Sidereal mentor/rescuer came stumbling out of a portal, quite singed. The portal was _right_ next to Yaohua, who was currently helping Mei, the shrine 'maiden' learn how to ride. In a small room, with neither of them wearing clothes.  
  
After rolling over on top of Mei, Yaohua quickly found out the terrible news. Some time after he had been exiled/saved from his home city of Thorns, a deathknight (necromancer counterpart to Solars) had attacked and conquered the city. Red Silk had gone in to investigate, and only barely escaped the trap laid for him. It was clear to him that only a Solar could defeat one of their corrupted kin. And it was even more clear to Yaohua that he had to get back to Thorns _now_.  
  
Grabbing Mei and rolling her up in a carpet to hide her nakedness, he leaped out the window, straight into the saddle of Summer. He instantly took off for the demense, where I was working with Minister Shimae to figure out the logistics and Tomoe was being the upper management who doesn't know what you're doing but is sure you're doing a _very_ good job of it. Along the way, he asked Mei if she was willing to come with him, even knowing the dreadful danger she was going to be in. She agreed to follow him, joining Meng as a permanent harem member for Yaohua.  
  
As soon as he arrived, Yaohua explained everything (about Thorns. The naked shrine maiden I knew who was still naked and on his horse somehow didn't come up.) I instantly agreed to come with him, with everything I needed on my person.  
  
Tomoe, on the other hand, couldn't. Her being specced for a one player game duties as Empress meant that she had to stay behind and safeguard and expand her burgeoning empire. We were all sad to part, especially since we may never see each other again.  
  
After our goodbyes were said, Yaohua and his horse and his harem, Red Silk, and I set off for a nearby gate to Yu-shan (Heaven), since it would cut down on the travel time.  
  
And there the session ended. One story had concluded, and another was set to begin.

* * *

Today in Exalted, we sneaked past the guardians of law and order, which is a _sterling_ sign we're doing the right thing.  
  
Led by Red Silk, Yaohua, Meng, Mei and I quickly left the Land of the Rising Sun behind us, possibly for ever. We rode past the border, over the mountains, and deeper and deeper into a jungle. It was all quite interesting for me, being the first time I had ever seen such a thing. The trip passed mostly without incident, and we soon arrived at a well-hidden cave, that led into a confusing, twisting network of tunnels. Red Silk confidently led us through the winding maze, until we arrived at the portal to Yu-Shan.  
  
It was a massive gate, made out of all the magical materials, and engraved with praises to the heavens and the chief gods. It was also shut tight.  
  
Just as Red Silk was about to open it, he was stopped. Sylas (Skitzy's temporary character), a god of smuggling who worked in the Bureau of Humanity was there as well, with a load of poached animal skins. He and Red Silk knew each other (and I got the _strong_ impression that their relation went well beyond acquaintances, and that Red Silk was embarrassed two Solars were seeing him consorting with Sylas.) More importantly, though, Sylas warned Red Silk about aBronze Faction Sidereal (Anti-Solar) waiting for him (and us) on the other side of the gate. Since the Bronze Faction currently has the ear of the important powers in Heaven, it would be quite easy to bait us into breaking some law or other (or just _appearing_ to do so) and come down _hard_ on us. Possibly death, possibly something else.  
  
Red Silk went through without us to draw away his compatriot, leaving the four of us in the hands of Sylas. After some discussion, we settled on the idea of Yaohua and I pretending to be Sylas's children with a mortal, Mei pretending to be his high priestess (or only priestess, probably), and Meng doing her best not to be seen by anyone (Fae). The idea was that Yaohua and I were going to Thorns to set up a smuggling network in light of the recent chaos, while Mei was getting a tour thanks to her importance. Since God-blooded aren't all that important, at least when they're the children of a low-ranking god in a politically weak Bureau, that meant Mei was rather more important than us.  
  
Some work with some makeup to make Yaohua and I look less attractive then we are, and handing all of our gear over to Sylas, we were ready to go. We passed the lion-dog guardians of the portal easily, and stepped through into Heaven.  
  
And then the session ended. We'll probably spend another session or two here, unless things go _really_ bad (like Yaohua seeing what the gods get up to).

* * *

Today in Exalted, we got to see what gods are like. Bribery, extortion, and assault.  
  
As we walked towards Heaven's mass-transit equivalent, Sylas, our godly guide, took Yaohua and I across a large lake, walking across a narrow pathway flanked by dancing swarms of fish. Of course, he also had to pay a 'token of respect' to the censor who owned the lake, leaving a good chunk of his salary behind. That done, we went through the crowded city streets of Yu-Shan, with all kinds of gods in all kinds of shapes, few of them human looking.  
  
As we walked along, we were rather obviously recognized as Solars by a god assigned to the scouts of the Aerial Legion. The way his eyes got wide and how he spilled his drink as he stared at me was a dead give away. He stood up to try and get away, but Sylas managed to get him into an alleyway by waving some more heavenly currency at him.  
  
Once there, the three of us started verbally working him over, as he went to pieces about what the Bronze Faction (anti-Solars) Sidereals would do to him if he didn't report seeing two Solars in Heaven. Yaohua, eventually, managed to impress on him the importance of Yaohua returning to Thorns as quickly as possible, along with a promise of future assistance (not that Yaohua got his _name...)_ Finally, the god agreed to remain quiet, and didn't even take the money (since it could get him in a bunch of trouble if found on him). He took off, probably hoping that he'd never see or hear of us again.  
  
Some time after that, we saw a divine thug beating up another, smaller god over an issue of borrowed money. Both of us felt a need to intervene, but Yaohua fought the urge down due to the risk of being revealed. And I fought it down with a legal argument over jurisdiction. We still heard the god getting beaten up for a long time after, though.  
  
Finally, we actually arrived at the mass-transit, a set of silver and gold canals. Specialized gods control who traveled along them, and in what lanes (gold being faster, obviously). Sylas managed to flog one down and get a good rate for us.  
  
The session wrapped with us trying to figure out how to fit two gods, one shrine maiden, two horses and two Solars on one boat.

* * *

Today in Exalted, we successful snuck through Yu-Shan, breaking all kinds of laws as we did so.  
  
Last session, Prince Yaohua and I, Yaohua's horse, Summer, my horse, unnamed, Mei and Sylas boarded a boat to get us across heaven quicker. The canal god was quite happy to take our (Sylas's) money, and we headed off through the silver lane, moving at a good clip. Right up until a massive airship overtook and settled down ahead of us, setting up an impromptu checkpoint. _Not_ the kind of thing we were interested in taking part of. Sylas payed the canal god an exorbitant amount of heavenly currency for him to switch us into the gold canal, which is reserved for official business. That _really_ got us moving, a hundred miles per minute. Yaohua and I handled it fine, though he had to tend to my horse, and Mei was caught in between screaming her head off in delight and in terror.  
  
Eventually we arrived at the heavily guarded portal that would take us back to Creation, at a point somewhere outside of Thorns. We parted from Sylas on the far side, with promises of eventual repayment for the invaluable services he provided us. He left us (though Skitzy will be coming back with a new character very soon), leaving two Solars, two horses and a clumsy priestess on the side of a mountain as night fell.  
  
That wasn't actually a problem, and we were able to get down to the bottom of it soon enough. Yaohua vaguely knew the area, though just enough to say that it was under Thorn's influence instead of village names or places to go. So, since it was getting dark, we headed for the village closest to the line of travel to Thorns.  
  
After an embarrassing incident where Summer was the only one who managed to keep us going in the right direction, we arrived at the hamlet, long after night had fallen. There wasn't a single candle burning or person out on the street(s). It was much too small to have an inn, so the three of us came up with a quick story and knocked on the door of the largest house there was. I explained that I was a wandering priestess, Mei was another priestess, Yaohua was my brother, and that we needed shelter for the night.  
  
That got us into the house, with Yaohua getting the one spare bed in the house, and Mei and I sharing a bedroll with the owner's daughter/granddaughter, Jia. And then, the session ended.  
  
Take a moment to appreciate what Mei's day has been like. When she woke up, she was expecting to preform her shrine duties, spend time with friends, and make sweet, energetic love to a handsome, foreign prince. Before she went to sleep again, she joined him in leaving the Land of the Rising Sun, visiting Heaven while knowing that if caught, she would face eventual death, flew with me in a boat made out of clouds off a mountain, and now is entering a land ruled by the undead.  
  
So, in short, we entered Heaven under false identities, were complicit in three counts of bribery, threatening a soldier, ignoring assault and battery, and misappropriating government resources. We are obviously heroes.

* * *

Today in Exalted, we got in a fight that, in appropriate Exalted fashion, took two hours for two rounds.  
  
Yaohua, Mei and I spent the night in the village we never got a name for. Shortly before dawn, we both woke up. I, for my usual prayers, and Yaohua to stare in sadness at how empty the larder for the biggest house in town was. That done, he started hunting up some dirt and weeds to use for breakfast instead of imposing on our hosts. I, meanwhile, begin gathering information from our hosts about what they had heard. Not much, so small and so far from Thorns, but they did point out that the dark clouds to the south were always there, night and day.  
  
Also, they thought I was a goddess.  
  
Just because I appeared in the middle of the night, with glowing robes and a priestess and a retainer and I'm tall and beautiful. However did they think that? I was very careful not to say I was, and not to say I wasn't. After the meal Yaohua prepared and I blessed (also, enough food for everyone in the village, that tasted better than anything most of them had ever eaten), Mei and I went for a walk around the village and fields, blessing them with growth and fertility. Something I was pretty familiar with, since it was one of the main duties of the shrine, along with tending to the dead. Yaohua tended to a small number of injuries and illnesses, and then we left, probably never to return.  
  
Some six hours later of hard travel (that the equestrian with his Godblooded horse, Yaohua, hilariously, handled far worse than I did), we stopped for a late lunch, mostly so that Mei could go behind a bush for a few minutes. After Yaohua started cooking some fish, Mei asked for some help in... washing her back in the river. Yaohua jumped at the chance for that, and joined her. I took over tending to the meal, doing my best to ignore the sounds coming from the water's edge.  
  
Which also meant I didn't hear the crashing, booming sounds until a few minutes after Meng appeared to warn Yaohua. Then we saw a strange woman in red with white and black accents, come skipping down the river like a stone. Behind her was a giant of a man in heavy black armor, carrying a massive hammer. He landed on the riverbank just after the stranger shouted a warning to us and then hid underneath the shadows of the trees.  
  
I ignored the warning and shouted at the male stranger, telling him to stand down in the name of the Unconquered Sun. Yaohua, meanwhile, got an even worse Initiative roll than his ride roll, and was stuck trying to give Mei a satisfactory conclusion as quickly as he could. (He ended up making her cum so hard she almost fainted. Good for her, not quite so good for us.)  
  
The attacker thought I was a goddess.  
  
Also, he blasphemed against the Unconquered Sun, telling me to flee back to Heaven and maybe he wouldn't kill me when Yu-shan was conquered. There was only one response to that.  
  
My divinely-charged arrows removed most of his torso except for his spine, and also burned away part of his head, due to the two arrows in the eye. It didn't kill him, but _man_, it was quite the surprise to him as he was forced to quickly regenerate, costing him a _lot_ of mana.  
  
Not enough that he couldn't still attack me, though. His hammer blow missed, the strike killing the plant life for a radius of five feet. Our animas crackled to life. Mine was a four-armed shrine maiden, with a glowing red sun for a head. His was a cloud of damp darkness, spreading across his skin and overhead. His follow-up punch hit, though, doing the merest pittance of damage. Still sent me flying some fifty feet, though.  
  
Now it was time for his victim to act. She leapt from the shadows, her arm falling apart into four separate arms, each with daggers as she stabbed at him. In the back, of course. That made a wave of black mana erupt from his wounds that she barely avoided.  
  
Then Prince Yaohua finally struck a blow against the invaders who had conquered his home city. His two attacks didn't do a single thing, and the punishing counterpunch from the mountain knocked him out in a single blow and almost killed him. The followup _would_ have killed him if Meng hadn't yanked him fifty feet away to lay behind me. The man's mask did split in two because he was so goddamned angry, though. So there was that, at least.  
  
Getting up, I shot him again. Another excellent hit, with four darts of holy light burning through his torso and out the other side. Not enough to kill him, but man, he was not doing good. His would-be victim swung in again, once again going for his back, swinging her scythe overhead as dark shadows sprung from her forehead. That did some more damage, but still not enough to kill him.  
  
It was enough, though, to make him decide it was time to _leave_. He jumped about 1300 feet down river, trying to get away from us. We let him, since I was running low on mana, Yaohua was still unconscious and the stranger had been running _away_ from him in the first place. She thanked us for our assistance, and offered to escort us away from here for a day before returning to Thorns. Her offer was interrupted as she stared down at Yaohua's unconscious, _familiar_ face.  
  
And, after seven and a half hours, the session finally ended.  
  
Also, a description of The Shadow with Robes as Red as Blood, or as we will be calling her, Robes as Red. Or Ruby Rose, though I've already used up most of the good jokes for that. She wears a white cat-like mask with small antlers, and the rest of her body is hidden by a red, hooded robe. Her main weapon is a one-handed scythe. Also, she's an Abbysal, aka a undead aspected Solar. And Hei _hates_ the undead. That will be a fun time next session, when I and Robes as Red start to talk, without Yaohua to mediate between us.

* * *

In today's Exalted session, we talked. A lot.  
  
Yaohua was still out cold while Mountain Bone's ran away, not even stopping to pick up his shiny toy. Still, it was obvious that we couldn't stick around here for long. Robes as Red knew of a mausoleum an hour's ride away that she used as a hiding place. With zero better ideas, we mounted up, moving an unconscious person without a single care for his injury.  
  
Luckily, he managed to wake up after an hour, once we arrived. Robes as Red had taken her mask off to eat, which threw him for a loop, as she looked like a paler version of his younger sister, Yilan. Turned out there was a reason for that. Robes as Red was Yilan's servant, specifically chosen for her resemblance. And when Mask of Winters attacked, they hastily exchanged clothes and set Robes as Red up as the Princess of Thorns while Yilan escaped. Mask found out eventually, and 'offered' Robes as Red the choice to either become an Abyssal, or die right there on the spot. She, obviously, joined, though her loyalty remained to Yilan and the budding resistance. Some time later, she killed some junior Abyssals and took off running, chased by Mountain Bone's, which is were we met her.  
  
After that was cleared up, we got down to planning. There were four main threats. The Mask himself, his giant monster, his loyal Abyssals, and his army. We decided that the Abyssals were the first threat to be dealt with, as they could be in more places, more quickly, than any other threat. More specifically, we decided to focus on the diplomats he's sending out to nearby cities. Additionally, we need to make contact with Yilan, and start boosting the resistance. Luckily, Mei and I were trained in how to repel the undead, so Mei has a bright (and hopefully long) future in front of her, showing rebels how to use salt and other anti-undead measures.  
  
If we still had Tomoe, we could have raised up an army pretty damn quick. But since she empire-building far to the east, we're going to be playing the Rebel Alliance, harassing and sabotaging Masks's efforts while Yaohua waves his princely, sun-blessed status around at the neighbors to get them to agree to fight.  
  
Also, Robes as Red had brought the hammer along. Nobody was interested in the weapon itself, but it did have to magic gems set in it. Robes as Red got the damage boosting one, while Yaohua and I got the other, which lets us regain mana in the Underworld an the on-between zones, which currently includes Thorns.  
  
So, a pretty talky session, but next time, we should start putting out feelers, and taking the fight to Mask.

* * *

Yesterday in our Exalted game, we talked a lot, mostly out of character.  
  
And I mean we talked a _lot_. Most of the session was taken up by planning. However, we finally hashed out a plan. First, we would meet Yilan, and Yaohua could have a brief reunion with his sister after the better part of a year. Additionally, Mei would be handed off to resistance to provide some anti-undead mojo. Then, the three of us would head northeast, to the Scavenger Lands, where Typhon, one of the Abyssals, was working for the Mask of Winters to get allies. We would kill him (hopefully not while he's giving a speech, but you got to do what you got to do), and then start working over the Concordant to get the various kingdoms to support us instead. And we'd get there pretty damn fast, too, since Yaohua and I could fit in my cloud skiff and Robes as Red would ride in one of our shadows.  
  
That done, we headed into Thorns for the meeting. It was a _very_ dreary place, since Mask had dragged it halfway into the Underworld. Bleached colors, weakened waves and wind, a generally depressing land. And he was intent on making it worse. For instance, by either hiring or training the kind of gate guards who demanded exorbitant bribes from wandering peddlers (us in disguise) to get in, and would hit an old woman (Robes as Red) in the face for scowling at the lead guard. A friendly bunch, and Yaohua barely stopped himself from cutting them down right there in front of the walls. I contented myself with remembering their faces for later.  
  
And then we were inside Thorns, and it was even more depressing on the inside. Few people on the streets, with closed windows and barred doors abounding. People did their best to avoid looking at us or anyone else on the street. No laughter, no conversation, just quiet passerby's and the thud of armored boots of soldiers in the distance. We slowly made our way through the streets, and towards the sewer entrance, where we would meet Princess Yilan and the resistance.  
  
Next time: Everyone's favorite, the sewer level!

* * *

Today in Exalted, we had one of the game's classic 'five seconds of combat take two hours to resolve' situations.  
  
The five of us (Yaohua, Robes as Red, Meng, Mei and myself) were easily moving through the near deserted streets of Thorns. Robes as Red led us to the proper sewer entrance, and popped the hatch. One by one we slid down, when, suddenly, two things happened at once.  
  
The first was that Robes as Red heard the tread of many armored boots moving in unison down the street. Worse yet, she was able to tell that an Essence wielder was with them. Which, in Thorns, almost certainty meant an Abyssal Exalted. The one bit of good news was that it seemed to be just a patrol, instead of an informed response to us.  
  
Second, spectral, immaterial hands started to reach out of the sewer wall towards Yaohua, Mei and myself. Yaohua and I leapt to the other side of the sewer, taking Mei along with us. Ghosts started pouring through the wall, white-clad arms stretched towards us. Almost instantly, I let arrows fly, killing four of them and then a fifth as it walked through the wall, right where an arrow was lodged. Yaohua quickly dispatched the remaining four as Robes as Red tugged the sewer grating shut, hiding us from the street.  
  
From there, she led us deeper into the city's underways, towards where Yilan and part of the resistance could be found. Along the way, we discovered yet another emblem of the Mask of Winter's misrule. At the center of the sewer system, long ago, Thorns built a magitech device to convert sewage into clean water, inscribing the walls of the huge pit with prayers of cleansing, rebirth and renewal, to praise the god who oversaw that function. Some of the Mask's servants had cracked the prayer tablets, subtly altering the message to one of stagnation and decay. Although we could not see all of the effects, the pit we stood over _reeked_, a stench so bad that Mei threw up just from smelling it.  
  
The combination of all of this really pissed Yaohua off. Offering a small sacrifice of pure water, he _insisted_ that the god of this place come up out of the putrid put he was laying in. And the god did.  
  
It was obvious that the god had seen better days, with black veins pulsing underneath his skin, and his fine clothes tattered and stained. He did, however, retain enough of himself to demand that Yaohua leave immediately. Yaohua responded that as the rightful prince of Thorns, he had every right to be here, and that the god would answer his questions.  
  
And on that diplomatic note, the session ended.

* * *

Today in Exalted, we got out of the sewer level.  
  
Last time, Yaohua was about to start arguing with Thorn's sewer/infrastructure god after he had been corrupted by the Mask of Winter's and his agents. We opened with Yaohua getting cussed out by the god, who was blaming him for the sorry state of the god's (Yasuri) responsibilities and the outright sabotage of his ancient prayer tablets. Yaohua fired right back, berating Yasuri for the sorry state he had put himself in, with fouled finery and a corrupted body, and calling him back to his previous state and responsibilities. Yasuri did not take that well at _all_, continuing to blame Yaohua for making him like this. He was getting angrier and angrier, with some unwelcome sounds from the cistern he had risen out of.  
  
Not wanting to fight animated sewage, I stepped in, calling on Yasuri to either do his duty or depart, but not to continue sitting in filth. That didn't work very well either, and in fact, got him to attack us.  
  
Luckily, Robes as Red and I went before Yasuri. Robes ninjaed away to lurk and center her aim. I, still not wanting to hurt him, tried a different tack. I called on him to accept that the minions of undeath were the ones fouling his sewers and corrupting his domains, and that we should unite against the forces of the ancient enemy.  
  
It didn't precisely work, but it didn't _not_ work, either. Yasuri spent his action staring at the ground and mumbling to himself about harmony. Seeing that a non-violent resolution was still possible, Yaohua didn't attack either, and joined in, stressing the need for harmony, the living in Creation and the dead in the Underworld. That made Yasuri even more reflective, staring at what he had become. Finally, he muttered agreement with Yaohua's words, and told us to leave immediately. We did so, though we all knew that, sooner or later, we'd be back.  
  
Meanwhile, Robes had found between six and eight dead, disassembled bodies in one of the sewer pipes leading to the cistern that Yasuri had his sanctum in. Realizing pollution and corruption when she saw it, she used her robes as a sack to pick them up in, making certain that they didn't enter the pit. She joined as we left, once more leading the way.  
  
Soon after we had departed the cistern, we stopped, and I used my powers to ensure that the ghosts of the bodies entered the cycle of reincarnation, instead of lingering to be used by the Mask of Winters as slaves or soulsteel. And soon after _that_, Mei collapsed. Again.  
  
This time, Yaohua figured out that something was disrupting her flow of Essence, and I guessed that it was due to the effects of the Shadowland we were in. Not good, but Yaohua was able to more or less revive her as we picked up the pace to the meeting spot with Yilian. After cutting the travel time in half, even with carrying Mei, we arrived at an underground bazaar, out of the shadowland.  
  
It was surprisingly free of the Mask's troops, apparently because it was hard enough to enter and exit he was fine with letting the natural hazards cull those who would escape his sight. Given that, it was also surprisingly crowded, though the colors of the stalls were faded and the clothes were thin. Oddly enough, the four of us weren't terribly conspicuous as we looked for the sign that would indicate where Yilian was.  
  
We (Robes as Red) found it and stepped inside. Inside were fifteen people, but, most importantly, one of them was Yilian. There was a desperately glad family reunion between her and Yaohua. Yilian herself looked a lot like a female Yaohua, though she had apparently gotten leaner and harder since he had vanished. And was wearing light armor, weapons and an unneeded, but quite dramatic, eyepatch.  
  
Yaohua was terribly sad over how he wasn't here when Thorns fell, and how it took so long to return to his city and his sister in their time of need. But at least he had come back with enough strength to deal some serious blows to the Mask of Winters!  
  
Robes as Red, as Yilian's former bodyguard/body double, needed no introduction. I explained that Mei and I were priestesses from the east, and that I had come to fight the undead, and restore Thorns to Creation. Yaohua then stepped in to add why _Mei_ was here. He was discreet, but Yilian still read between the lines and realized that the two of them were lovers. Beyond some sibling ribbing, she was fine with that, and with Mei staying with her while we hunted down ambassadors.  
  
That was also a nice segue into meeting Burning Leaf, Yilian's... _spiritual assistant_. A Wood Aspected Dragonblood, who's name apparently refers to the color of her cheeks when Yaohua gave Yilian some sibling ribbing. After a disgression where Yaohua tried to get Robes as Red back into Yilian's bed (and yes, the two of them look a lot alike), we got down to business.  
  
We got an earful of the latest rumors and information, including that a Lunar challenged the Mask of Winters to a fight, and got his top half pinned to the highest tower with spears of black metal. The rumors were silent about where his bottom half ended up, or if he was still alive. Distressing, and a potential ally, but also a distraction from the _other_ information Yilian had.  
  
Typhon, Mask's prime diplomat, was in Nexus. Who knew how long he would be there, so it was obviously urgent that we get there as soon as possible to kill him before he concludes his mission on peace.  
  
And on that note, the session ended.

* * *

Today in Exalted, we imitated the valiant Sir Robin as we bravely ran away.  
  
After spending far too long figuring out how to thread the needle of Yaohua apologizing to Burning Leaves for bearing overbearing while still being kind of overbearing, Robes of Red and Yilian shared a tender moment in front of us and a collection of nameless extras who didn't even get descriptions or speaking parts. There was some verbal sparring between the two of them over how much Robes as Red was an Abyssal versus still being Yilian's mortal body double. Yilian still thinks of Robes as her friend and guard, and even remembers her old name. Robes, though, thanks to her nature as an Abyssal, draws a pretty strong division between the two parts of her life. They held firm to their own stances, before separating from the hug Yilian ahd drawn Robes as Red into.  
  
After that, it was a straight shot out of the city through various tunnels. In fact, absolutely nothing of note happened until we stepped out into a field. And then, _boy_, did we step into it.  
  
The sun was starting to set as we emerged into the light of dusk. Right away, we noticed that there was a ghost standing over a headless body. A very _recent_ body, since it was still bleeding. Robes as Red had already hopped into my shadow in preparation for the skiff ride (which can only carry two people), so Yaohua and I went to investigate.  
  
I noticed that the body was that of a man, while the ghost was a woman. And Yaohua noticed that the body had markings on it that were only given to serial or mass murderers. And then I wouldn't have noticed the invisible blades of Essence slashing towards my head if not for my Charms.  
  
I dodged out of the way, and decided Robes as Red had been quite right when she said it was time to go (mostly because at night, a shadowland gives you access to the Underworld instead of Creation, and it was a matter of moments before that happened). I started to summon my skiff, as Yaohua did a masterful job of parrying the next eight invisible blades.  
  
I brought it down from the clouds, we hopped in (Yaohua barely managing to parry the next three), and we made a clean get away.  
  
Then, behind us, there was a rasping, inhuman scream, and every stalk of wheat in the field was decapitated in an instant. The grains were drawn into a cloud, tied together with flickering black essence. There was still no sign of who was controlling it.  
  
I loosed a fiery raptor at the cloud expecting less to kill its master (mistress, as Robes alter speculated) than to disrupt the necromancy long enough to make a get away. However, a burning black blade shot out and cut the bird in two. It didn't reach us, but I still decided that it was time to focus on nothing more than leaving.  
  
As thousands of ghosts rose up from Thorns and the fields, we raced towards the northern border, with the black cloud behind us. It still wasn't as fast as my own skiff, though, and we shot across the border of the shadowland with merely seconds to spare. There was no pursuit, and we were free to head to Nexus.

* * *

We had a pretty short session today.  
  
We flew northeast through the night, heading towards Nexus, _the_ trading city of Creation. I managed to more or less hold my course through the night as we flew over lands I'd never been to before. And when morning came, we were right in front of a river. But which river? There were two big rivers that fed Nexus, both of them miles across.  
  
Luckily, there was a ship sailing down it. I flew down and found a sailor in the rigging. I asked for directions, the very air of casualness, and got them. And then I flew off, leaving the sailor to stare after the woman (and sleeping man) who came swooping down from the sky in a skiff made out of clouds, asked for directions, and then left again.  
  
We easily found Nexus from there. We landed in a small wood outside of town, to enter the city on foot. We had a debate as we walked if we should kill Typhon first, or start making inroads on the Confederacy to get aid for the resistance.  
  
Sadly, our walk was interrupted by a pissed-off bear. This, along with the trials of Kushi's overgrown thicket, the spider that tried to bite me on the way to Yu-shan, and the spirit court that we almost wandered into leaving Yu-shan convinced Hei of something.  
  
Nature sucks.  
  
Robes as Red easily killed the bear, and then, amidst punning, the session ended due to the GM not being able to keep zheir eyes open.

* * *

Today in Exatled, I made some friends.  
  
Last session, Robes as Red killed a bear in a single blow. At the start of this session, she started skinning it, while Yaohua started cooking it. Luckily, he also made a salad for me to eat. After a nice, filling breakfast, we were just about to start on the road to Nexus (related to the _Road to Morocco_, with Robes as Bing Cosby, myself as Bob Hope, and Yaohua as Dorthy Lamor), when we heard a trilling noise in the bush. We looked, and there was a four-foot high raptor with a blue and green feathered crest looking at us, and at the large amount of bear meat still around. Yaohua was about to toss a scrap at it, when two more raptor heads poked through the leaves. That gave him a _bit_ more pause.  
  
OOC, we talked about what to do for a bit, with Robes mentioning some useful Charms she had. Then I mentioned that I had Survival as a caste ability, and that it mentioned training animals. At that point, I'm pretty sure that all three of us _and_ the GM got more or less matching smiles as we thought about that.  
  
A few minutes later, I was tossing scraps of raw bear meat at the first, bravest raptor as it came up to me, watched by the other six members of the pack. Eventually, the others came up, and I started to feed them directly, handing them chunks of meat that I would never otherwise touch. And, just like that, I had a small pack of vicious predators as a familiar that stuck close with me, and some Charms to learn to make them smarter, stronger and tougher. Not a very bad result for the second time I had ever been in nature.  
  
We finally started for Nexus, the raptor pack trotting along at my heels. We all (but mostly me) got some pretty weirded out looks from the merchants we passed, and plenty of space from the little buggers with sharp teeth, claws, and a good jumping range. The guards at the gate didn't seem quite as impressed, though it would take a lot to phase a mercenary group that killed a Solar Exalt without Dragonblooded assistance. We got in, spinning a true but incomplete story about how we were here to hire help to fight and advise us. Somehow, I failed to mention that we were also planning to ice an ambassador that was staying here.  
  
We got in without a problem, only having to pay a tax on the bearskin Robes as Red had gotten from the morning meal. Once in, Robes wanted to recoup the tax (that _I_ paid) by actually selling the skin. We found a furrier, and Robes started flirting and bargaining with the massive shopkeeper, Iron Bear, who seemed half bear himself. Both her and Yaohua were able to handle the hugely strong brew he kept around, while I made sure my new pack didn't eat any of his products. After Robes as Red sold the skin (and kept the silver), he offered to put us up for the night. Yaohua and I in our own rooms, while Robes as Red could share his room. She accepted, though before any of us went to... sleep, we were going to have to go have a look around the city for leads on Typhon and for people who'd help us fight the Mask of Winter.  
  
And that ended the session, though I, CptTagon, did get a commission from Robe's player to write up an omake about Robes and Iron Bear that could be summed up as [this](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/861/482/9d4.jpg).

* * *

Today in Exalted, we fished for rumors.  
  
Both Yaohua and myself had an _extremely_ unrestful night, listening to Iron Bear and Robes as Red screw each other all night long. In fact, we woke up more tired than when we started. We both gave Robes the stink eye as we got ready for the monring, setting out into the city to pick up rumors about Typhon and various assets we could hire to fight the Mask of Winters.  
  
We actually did a pretty good job, all things considered. My raptors were still enjoying their fifteen minutes of fame, and plenty of people stopped to look at the colorful, four feet high meat eaters darting around the city streets. And once they stopped to watch, Yaohua and Robes started talking to them, gathering whatever information we could find.  
  
There were two big bits of news. The first was about Typhon. He was letting people think he was a god-blooded or possibly a ghost-blooded or, _very_ unlikely, an exceptionally skilled mortal. And certainly not an agent of genocidal undead monsters from the Underworld. Robes as Red got in contact with those self-same monsters to get a hint about how to kill him. It turns out Typhon is a Day Caste Abyssal, which means he's intrigue focused. As Robes as Red is also a Day Caste, she figures that he had a lot of blackmail on local figures, which explains his success in getting people to deal with him. We _also_ found out a teashop he likes to go to, also known as the spot we're likely going to attack him at.  
  
We also found out about a lady merchant (Saffron Star)who had suddenly been doing _very_ well for herself. She inherited her father's company (mainly salt, which is _very_ useful against the undead) at quite the young age after the rest of her family died in what _had_ be unfortunate accidents or just flat out disappeared. And, she's hosting an open invitation party in a few days.  
  
We more or less hammered out what we're going to do. Kill Typhon _today_, or, at the very least, make him reveal his status as a disgusting, half-dead abomination (big shout out to Robes as Red) to the city at large. And then rest up for a few days, and go wine and dine with Nexus's finest at a river party. And pluck Ms. Star out of the Mask's pocket and put her into ours. And I think we all know which of us will be the one doing _that_ bit of seduction.  
  
And below, find out just _how_ Yaohua and I couldn't get any sleep!

* * *

Today in Exalted, shit got _anime_.  
  
Despite having a week of downtime to talk about our plans, we didn't. Instead, we quickly agreed, once the session started, to ice Typhon in front of the assembled movers and shakers at the big party in three days. For now, we were going to rest and recuperate and mostly try to get some sleep without Robes as Red screaming her head off as she gets pounded through a floor or two.  
  
At first, things went pretty well. Meng vanished off to find fancy clothes and money for Yaohua. I went off to secure three rooms at a nice inn, where, once again, I was taken for a god. (For the fourth time). I still managed to get a good price for the next three days, and also made sure that my little murderbirbs ate the meat I wanted them to eat, and not, say, a kid that got too close to them. And while I was doing that, Yaohua went off to sample the various food stalls to pick up some tricks for his own use. And then shit started going down.  
  
Yaohua was _very_ enthusiastic about all the wonderful flavors he was missing out on. And Meng had already dropped a lot of dough into his pocket. All too quickly, he was at the center of a maelstrom of street vendors, chefs and foodies talking about their favorite dishes. Without Yaohua even doing anything, it turned into an organized cooking tournament, to find out who was the best cook/group of cooks in Nexus.  
  
Yaohua ended up on a disparate team with Quinhan, an old master of medicinal cooking, Moss Stone, who made tea and accompanying pastries, and Su Soon a noodlemaker following what she can remember of her dead father's recipes after her uncle stole his cookbook. (It gets more anime than this.)  
  
In the first round, the team faced off against a master chef of the traditional Realm style and the entire staff of his three-story restaurant. He presented to the crowd and judges twice-cooked honey pork and fried rice. Yaohua and his team countered with Soon's sweet chili cooking noodles, begging the more exotic ingredients off of the crowd. Though Yaohua managed to produce some smoked bear that went perfectly with the rest of the dish. Despite the pork dish being excellent on its own, the competing chef still burst into tears at the first bite of the noodles.  
  
Their victory spurred the team on to new heights and congratulating each other, they moved on to the second round. By this time, Robes as Red and I had arrived on the scene, and were circling the crowd. I could see where this was going, and started laying down some groundwork. I was just... you know, someone who casually dropped references to how this compared to Heaven, but I didn't _actually_ say I was a goddess. Robes was a handmaiden and I implied that Yaohua (under an assumed name) was someone I had found on my travels, and brought along. Mostly to the circle of old cooks I bumped into as they talked.  
  
Yaohua and his team faced off against a Dragonblooded chef, Peppered Ember, who was quite good at grilling. And with how she looked, she didn't need charcoal and tinder to set someone on fire. She still used mundane tools to prepare half a cow, three chickens and a bunch of pork for her own entry (most of it going to the _very_ large and loud crowd that had assembled).  
  
Yaohua decided to counter the heaviness of meat with something light and refreshing. Ice cream. Even better, that was practically unknown in Nexus, so he got a large amount of novelty from it. Borrowing the ice, Moss made a light and airy pastry to go with the ice cream. And they even managed to do it quickly, which was quite the good thing, since the judges had speed as an important category for restaurant food.  
  
Ember fully deserved her advancement to the second round, with beef that chewy and tender, and pork that was like biting into Heaven. But Yaohua's team still managed to surpass it, with an ice cream that perfectly epitomized what a light, digestive aiding dessert should be (and was quite needed, with all the food being given out). Two of the five judges had never even seen ice cream before, and the team easily won. Yaohua still made a note of wanting to learn from her later on. But it was still time to go to the next round, where things got even more anime.  
  
This time, the opponent was an a coalition of food carts and junior chefs, led by Su Mon, Su Soon's thief of an uncle. It was instantly clear that this time, it would be noodle versus noodle. Su Soon was worried, only half-remembering the dishes her father made before he died. Yaohua gave Soon an inspiring pep talk about how there's more to cooking than memorizing recipes and that Soon's grown beyond her father's book, while her uncle still slavishly copies what someone else made. And that she just needed to add love for cooking and love for her father to her work to get a dish that would easily surpass Su Mon's.  
  
Moss went to work on brewing the perfect tea to go with the dish, while Quinhan stepped into the background, the older generation making way for the new. Soon prepared a miso broth while Yaohua went to work on the noodles. The broth quickly prepared, Soon worked like a madwoman on the toppings, moving as quickly as Yaohua did, without any of Yaohua's special abilities.  
  
As they worked, Su Mon came over. He took one look at Soon's dish and started laughing. He couldn't believe that she was making one of the most basic ramen recipes known, and thanked her for taking it so easy on her uncle in his old age. The team ignored him, with Moss slipping a hand over Soon's shoulder, urging her on. Mon couldn't have been more offended at the display than if he had been slapped, and retreated back to his own side, boasting about how his Heavenly Broth would make him the clear winner.  
  
There was some more work as I pumped the crowds, and then it was time for the comparison. Mon's dish was great. Amazing, even. And he took one bite of Soon's bowl and dropped to his knees, crying. The eldest of the judges declared that it was, flat out, the best thing he had ever eaten, and reminded him of when he had first started cooking, and the pride and satisfaction he felt then, getting his father's approval for his efforts.  
  
But things got even more anime than that.  
  
The tournament wasn't over yet. There was still one last team to challenge, a pair of underdogs, just like Yaohua and his team. Harmonious Jade and Captain Dace. One of them was an attractive black woman, dressed lightly but brightly. The other was a damn big man with an even larger sword strapped to his quite heavy armor.  
  
I was a bit slower on the uptake than Yaohua's and Robe's players, but they clued me on those two being the canon Solars, appearing in the rule book and everything. Dace appeared with a group of soldiers chanting his name, while Jade had a cart that she opened up, revealing a masterful assemblage of cooking ingredients inside.  
  
As a prelude, Dace flared his caste mark, showing everyone who and what he was. And it had quite the effect on Yaohua's team. Moss was ready to give up then and there, having come as far as she knew she could, and Soon and Quinlan just looking defeated. Yaohua (still keeping himself being a Solar under wraps) busted out another inspiring speech, and urged them onwards, saying that even if they tried and failed, the deed would still have been worth doing. It worked, and they agreed that if they could beat a Dragonblood, then they might be able to beat two Solars as well. And so they started cooking.  
  
Robes had started looking around, and saw two of the other three canon Solars on a balcony, watching the whole thing with an amused air. She went up to meet them, (by sneaking up behind them and speaking right into their ears) and got a friendly throwing knife to the face from Arianna, a rather tall, slender, grumpy woman. Robes got along much better with the man, Swan, blatantly checking out his body as they chatted about the scene down below.  
  
The team decided to recreate the feast that Yilian organized when Yaohua came of age. And with Yaohua's Charms, they could do the work of nine hours in one, actually letting them manage that. All of them put their all into it, with Yaohua rather forgetting that he was supposed to be resting for an assassination and party in a few days. Quinlan worked on the soup, using every trick he knew to make it refreshing and vitalizing. Moss and Yaohua worked on a tea, blending flavors from his own favorite and a few normally inedible herbs. And Soon worked on a noodle dish inspired by Ember's cooking, hot and flavorful, with multiple meats coming together.  
  
Dace was showing off as he chopped up the vegetables, throwing them into the air and using his sword to slice them as they fell into the appropriate bowls. Jade was unfurling her cart, revealing rather more tools and work surfaces than it should be possible for it to hold. Then she started working on a rich meat and rice dish, pulling ingredients out from everywhere. Dace was commanding his soldiers as they worked over the fire, cooking his own meal. The mingled scents were enough to set absolutely everyone drooling as the wind carried them through the crowd.  
  
And then, finally, the meals were ready, and it was time to see who the victor was. Jade's Tyrant Lizard fried rice was wonderful, each taste conjuring up thoughts of the jungles far to the south east. Rich, meaty, with a light spice to it. The only reason it couldn't be called exquisite perfection, was because that didn't leave enough words to describe Yaohua's meal.  
  
The team's combined feast was enough to get the unanimous approval of all five judges, and have them declared the winner. Yaohua was the only one who could really believe it, with Quinlan almost fainting on the spot, and Moss and Soon hugging each other so tightly it was pretty natural when the hug became a bit more than happiness. The cheers of the crowd (as they got to taste both meals) was literally deafening, and nobody could hear what anyone else was saying.  
  
Dace took it quite well, eventually getting the crowd to chant the team's names, though Jade had vanished somewhere. Robes and her new... friends noticed that, and Swan had a good laugh over Jade getting beaten at her own game, after she had apparently told her team to be stealthy and low profile. Also, Robes expressed her interest in doing Jade along with Swan and Arianna.  
  
Peppered Ember led a group in hosting Yaohua to their shoulders and bringing him over to a stage, where Dace was already waiting. Dace (with quite the loud voice) talked about how there was no shame in losing to such a good team and, at a much quieter tone, suggest a speech. And things got a bit more anime.  
  
Yaohua quickly whipped one together, while _still_ not revealing he was a Solar, which was impressive all on its own. He thanked the judges, the contestants, the viewers, almost everyone. And he said that his team's performance was due to inspiring each other's love of the craft, praising their virtues and leading into how he saw those same virtues in the city of Nexus. How anyone could be a good chef if they believed and were always open to learning more. Well delivered feel good stuff, that the crowd loved, and also led, in the very same day, to a surge of new bars, cafes, food stalls and restaurants opening.  
  
And now things reached peak anime.  
  
  
Dace asked his newly made friend, Typhon of Thorns, to present Prince Yaohua the winner's prize.  
  
Next session: "Murderbirbs, attack!"

* * *

Today in Exalted, Robes as Red struck out relationship-wise, Yaohua got involved in a sixsome, and I didn't look for sex at all.  
  
We resumed with Yaohua being given a reward by Typhon for winning the impromptu cooking contest. He gave Yaohua four medallions, made out of red jade, to be given to all the other members of his team. As he did so, he made a veiled comment about how much he looks forward to killing Yaohua and having his ghost work for Typhon as his own personal chef. Yaohua pretended not to understand that, and gave a false name, and was generally as falsely happy about the whole thing as Typhon was being. I don't _think_ Typhon recognized Yaohua for who he was, but I suppose we'll find out when Typhon blurts out one of two names as Yaohua tries to kill him during the party two nights from now.  
  
Robes, meanwhile, had tried to flirt and got told she isn't his type. Then, right away, she tried to pick up Arianna, the proud, grouchy sorcerer. Robes quickly backpedaled, both literally and figuratively as Arianna threw a pair of knives at her, fuming about how she is _not_ going to be anyone's second choice. After putting her foot in her mouth, and Arianna's friend (Swan) managing to get her calmed down, something more useful resulted. The only reason they knew Typhon was because of Harmonious Jade (the female Solar from the cooking duel) had a crush on him. And there were multiple ways to get around that, since the rest of the party was pretty ambivalent towards him, with Panther, their fifth member waiting outside of Nexus, outright hostile to all Abyssals.  
  
I took a quick look at the medallions Typhon had passed out. Sure enough, they were trapped; with a spell that, once activated, would let Typhon draw on the wearer's energy for a few minutes until the spell burnt out. I disrupted the enchantments under the guise of blessing the medallions. And the show I put on was good enough that some nearby priestesses who had stopped to watch joined me. I capitalized on the moment, and jumped up on the stage where the awards had been given out. I then launched into an off-the-cuff sermon about how important it was to enjoy life, contrasting it with the deathlords' desire for an endless, grey world of ghosts preforming joyless toil underneath their lash. I also touched on the Unconquered Sun, and how the sun enabled food to be grown, food that we all enjoyed, prepared in so many different ways even as it nourished and sustained life.  
  
As the afternoon turned into evening, Yaohua wrote a quick letter to Moss and Song, and then, newly enriched by prize money, Meng's general pickpocketing, and Typhon's purse (Meng's _specific_ pickpocketing) went off to get some proper party clothes. And the first place he found had two attractive blonde sisters working there. He turned up the charm, and pushed across enough money to get them to start drooling. They promised that his outfit would be ready in two days, and it would be suitable for such a fancy party. But first they had to get his measurements.  
  
All five of the sisters (completely identical in personality and appearance) had to get his measurements. Although Yaohua did make sure that all five of them were completely satisfied. He spent the night at the shop, while Robes and I spent the night in the inn, with the third room I had paid for going empty.  
  
Next time, I have high hopes for introducing myself to the other Solars as a priestess of the Unconquered Sun while _not_ saying I'm a Solar as well. And what kind of priestess wouldn't be overjoyed to meet her god's agents? With luck, it should be pretty funny.

* * *

Today in Exalted, Robes as Red lightened up.  
  
Yaohua was still enjoying the company of the tailor sisters, while I retired to my own room at the inn. And it was quite the nice room, with a nest and meat for the raptors, silk sheets, a bath, food, incense and two handmaidens (the innkeeper's daughter) ready to attend to my _every_ need (it's amazing what happens when people think you're a god). Which meant that they gave me a back massage as I studied the pocketbook I had taken from a First Age ruin underneath the (unnamed) capital of the Land of the Rising Sun months ago. And I learned quite a bit from it. It was a diary by Bright Shattered Ice,a First Age Solar, and touched on almost everything imaginable, from notes on Manse construction to pages and pages of ranting against an owl, to erotic poems dedicated to Duex, another First Age Solar, to, most importantly, instructions on how to modify and create sorcererous spells.  
  
It was all hugely fascinating, and, not only would it help me, copies of the relevant portions would work as an excellent bribe for Arianna, the touchy Solar Robes hacked off, who's rather focused on sorcery. But it was weeks worth of study, even for the parts I understood. So I went to bed, dismissing the handmaidens.  
  
Robes as Red was spending time in her own, less fancy but still very nice room. Displaying the same sense of friendliness that had already made such an impression on Arianna, she started asking the servants who had any high-quality girl-on-girl porn they were willing to sell her. She managed to get one, with a minimum of money changing hands and a maximum of Robes being naked and in the bath when the servant came by. Robes got a well-loved book, and a promise that the servant girl would come by tomorrow night for some reenactment of the woman's preferred scenes.  
  
After that, Robes left the inn to go snoop around Saffron Star's mansion (who is the woman who quite suddenly inherited the family salt business and is throwing the party in two days). She easily found it, and easily slipped over the perimeter wall. It was pretty much what you would expect from a rich merchant's house. Big lawn, big mansion, plenty of outbuildings. And a cloaked, hooded figure on a balcony.  
  
Robes scaled the wall, coming up underneath the balcony. She couldn't hear or see a single sign of movement from the figure, not even breath. And her Essence sight didn't show anything, either, meaning it was probably the equivalent of a scarecrow, set up to ward thieves off. Crawling up behind it, Robes slipped into the room the balcony opened up on. It was a large, dark bedroom, with someone sleeping in the bed. As she got closer to the figure, Robes heard a shift of cloth from outside on the balcony. Instantly, she leapt up to grab onto the ceiling, and started layering on the Charms to make her impossible to hit.  
  
Which made it even worse when a two-foot long spike of hardened wood severed her left arm and another buried itself in her right shoulder, instantly rendering the arm useless. Robes was already trying to escape, but now she tried _really hard_ to do so, wrapping herself up in her cloak and jumping off the balcony. At least the robe drank her own blood as readily as anyone else's, so there was no trail leading away from the mansion. And the figure (Essence 6, so twice as potent as any of us) never actually saw her, though I imagine it was pretty easy to find Robes' severed arm once she left the scene.  
  
Given the elemental essence still lingering on the wooden spikes, them being made of _wood_ and where the figure was encountered, I'm pretty sure we just ran into one of Saffron's Dragonblooded minions, and they're a hell of a lot more dangerous than I thought.  
  
At any rate, Robes went as quickly as she could back to the inn, growing fainter and fainter all the while. She managed to climb to the second story window that looked into my room. As it was two in the morning, I was sound asleep. But she did manage to wake the raptors up. And, since she was still outside, they didn't wake _me_ up by noisily eating the intruder that came into my bedroom during the middle of the night. Instead, I was woken up as one of the raptors nudged my side.  
  
It turned out to be a very good thing that I did what Robes and Yaohua would never do, namely, pass on a threesome with two beautiful girls. It would be somewhat interesting to explain why I was letting in a bleeding, crippled, masked stranger into their inn during the middle of the night. As it was, I opened the window and got Robes in, sending a raptor off to Yaohua's room to wake him.  
  
Robes _extremely briefly_ filled me in on what had happened. And we were both concerned over the same thing. Namely, that a sorcerer would be able to use Robes' severed arm as an occult conduit, and strike at her from a distance with any number of unpleasant spells. Also, she was still bleeding pretty badly.  
  
I set to work, using fire, salt and incense, and, most of all, my own will and knowledge to occultly occlude Robes' arm from her. It took a real amount of effort, but I managed it, severing the connection between her and it. Of course, there was still the matter of the wooden spike in her shoulder, which could also be used as a tracking medium. And the whole slowly bleeding to death issue.  
  
I know nothing of medicine, so I loaded Robes up on my back and set out the district Yaohua had mentioned going to. Once away from the inn, I took out the wooden spike, washed it clean of blood and threw it away. The streets of Nexus aren't safe at night, but with seven raptors around me, we were untroubled. And, given their sense of smell, we easily found the shop Yaohua had went to.  
  
The open window above us showed that the orgy was still ongoing. I called out, and the sisters quickly opened the door. Yaohua went to work tending to Robes, healing her wounds and neutralizing the poison the spikes were coated in. Robes was getting worse, and we had arrived just in time. Luckily, Yaohua was skilled enough that he managed to stop her from dying, and even set her on the road to recovery. Complete with a new arm, though it would be several days before she was able to use it or get out of bed. I, meanwhile, was explaining to the sisters how they saw and heard nothing, and how that resulted in a blessing of security and prosperity on their business.  
  
  
Next time, Robes' player has already been three different characters, so why not make it four?

* * *

Today in Exalted, we ran into a R!63 Disney film  
  
We wrapped things up (business, Robes as Red severed stump) and headed back to the inn. As it was dawn by the time we arrived, I went in alone to let Yaohua and Robes in through the window. After that, she was left to her own devices in my room, while we used the origami crane she had gotten from the Solars and headed out of the city to look for Panther, the last member of their group. Along the way, some cutthroats looked at us, looked at the raptors, and looked away.  
  
Once we were outside Nexus, the crane (after an embarrassing verbal slip-up on my part) took us to Panther as a storm began to brew. After a while, we didn't need the (paper, in a wet forest) crane to find him, since his booming voice carried through the forest with ease.  
  
He was preaching to an assembly of woodland animals on how to follow the Unconquered Sun's example and be the best they could be, without letting anyone hold them back. There was quite the crowd, with rabbits and foxes and more listening raptly to him. And Summer, Yaohua's horse.  
  
Yaohua and I waited for the end of the sermon (and I kept my raptors from having any snacks among the congregants) before we spoke to him. Panther, an absolute _giant_ of a man, shirtless and ripped beyond belief, had already heard of us from Summer, and was glad to meet us. He was less glad to hear about Typhon, and how Jade had a crush on a sociopathic liar. Even though he wasn't allowed inside Nexus, he was ready to strangle Typhon with his bare hands right then and there. Yaohua and I managed to convince him to wait until the party tomorrow night, when all the Solars in the city would be in attendance, and we could shatter Typhon's fair mask (in more ways than one) in front of the entire city.  
  
As we went back towards the city (myself carried by Panther, and Summer carrying three rabbits on his saddle, one of them holding the reins), we then began to discuss how to find Jade and convince her of Typhon's duplicity _before_ we murdered him in front of hundreds of people. Panther thought she would be somewhere high up, probably overlooking a collection of people she wants to hurt, which would normally be criminals. Yaohua immediately began to consider how many elevated places there were outside his window.  
  
Leaving Panther underneath an oak tree, we headed back into Nexus. Myself, Yaohua, the raptors, Summer, and our new companions, Flopsy, Mopsy and the Glory of the Unconquered Sun (Gus). We headed for a belltower close to the inn we were staying at. Once there, Yaohua thought he saw a black-skinned hand on a railing high up. We decided that I should go in alone, since I hadn't done anything to Amber's pride. After picking the lock in a shockingly easy manner, I slipped inside, climbing to the balcony.  
  
Once there, I was greeted with an arrow pointed at the back of my head. I explained to Jade that I had come to find her and I meant no ill-will. I also explained that Panther wanted to talk to her outside Nexus, underneath an oak tree. And that the man who defeated her in the cooking competition also wished to congratulate her. I managed to convince her, and she jumped off the edge of the belltower to go find her friend, with a threat about what would happen if I was lying.  
  
Next time, we get to see Jade stumble around the forest, wondering what the hell an oak tree looks like anyway.

* * *

Today in Exalted, I did _not_ play the peacemaker.  
  
I followed Jade into the forest to help Panther in talking to her about Typhon. Long before I got to the clearing, two anima banners lit up, and the distinctive sound of trees getting broken in two started to ring out. I decided that this wasn't a good sign, and started going a bit faster. Then Jade came slamming through some full-grown trees, before getting lodged into the third tree. When I tried to help her out of it and get her to calm down, she gave me a colorful but clear idea that I wasn't needed. I didn't take the hint, and followed her back into the clearing Panther was in.  
  
The two of them were really going at it, displaying far more martial skill than I myself could ever hope to have, using the same style as well. My repeated efforts to try and get them (mainly Jade) to calm down didn't get me anything beyond a rock thrown at me with enough speed that the gravel fragments wrecked _another_ tree. Eventually, I took the hint and returned to Nexus, letting the two of them have their conversation in private.  
  
Yaohua, meanwhile, was having a much more enjoyable time. I had left my raptors with him, and he decided to go visit Ember, the Dragonblooded chef from the cooking contest to get them the food I promised. Showing up with seven raptors in tow, he _easily_ got the empty second floor all to himself. Ember joined him after a bit, wearing a shirt and not all that much else. And a few minutes later, Quinlan, the older man from Yaohua's cooking team, joined them as well, with his clothes rather rumpled. The three of them got along _very_ well, with Yaohua full of compliments to Ember about the skill she had shown, and her letting him use her ingredients and tools to prepare a meal for my raptors.  
  
He also learned that Ember, Quinlan Moss and Su have all been contracted to provide catering for the party tomorrow night. Yaohua wasn't, but we're not sure if that was because Star's/Typhon's agents couldn't find him, or if they were purposely avoiding the exiled Prince of Thorns who's also a Solar. At any rate, the three of them had a great time together, with Yaohua providing a slightly edited account of how he ended up babysitting seven raptors.  
  
I, meanwhile, was fighting to get back to the inn, trailing a stream of people wanting blessings all the way. They were no longer scared off by the raptors, so everyone wanted as many benefits for health, wealth, safety, luck, everything as they could. I provided as many as I could while still making my way to the inn. And once there, I stepped inside, with the blessings being done for the day.  
  
Upstairs, in my room, Robes was entertaining herself. And _not_, as I half expected, with an orgy. Instead, Flopsy, Mopsy, and the Glory of the Unconqured Sun, the rabbits that joined us after visiting Panther, were putting on a play. I came in right at the end as 'RobesAsRed leans over to Hei, "Gus and Flopsy are brothers fighting over the hand of the princess, Mopsy tried to stop them. In their rage at each other they lashed out. Whoever wins they will be surely wracked with guilt over the deaths of their friends."'  
  
The play ended with both rabbits killing each other as Robes sniffled a bit. I took her mind off of things by briefing her on what had happened since we left her this morning.  
  
After wrapping things up with Ember, Yaohua went back to the tailors he had left early in the morning. They had his clothes ready, and they were some _very_ nice clothes indeed. Perfectly in fashion, loose enough for dancing and swordfighting, and as light as a feather. Frankly, they couldn't be beat.  
  
On that nice note, the session ended. I'd say one, maybe two more sessions until the party starts and we get down to business.

* * *

Today in Exalted, the party _started_.  
  
And by started, I mean we spent the first hour of game time deciding who was going with who, and what I was wearing. But we eventually managed to decide that Meng would be sneaking in while riding Yaohua's shadow, Robes would be riding Summer's shadow, and I would be attending as a goddess again, with Yaohua as a distinctly secondary note compared to the horse that was escorting me.  
  
Saffron Star was throwing a _big_ party on the river. Dozens of large boats, moored together, filled to the brim with guests and guards and servants. There was even a ship from Lookshy (important city state down the river from Nexus), flying the flag of an important Dragonblooded. Typhon was _not_ there, but most of the other Solars were, except for Arianna. I'd say 50/50 odds on her not being there, or on sitting in a corner reading. And Saffron Star, of course, was there (with a robed figure behind her). And she was wearing bright, shining robes, that made her stand out.  
  
I started towards her, and as I crossed boat after boat, her robes got brighter and brighter, from merely reflecting the torch light, to looking like a fire, to growing bright enough to hurt the eyes if stared at. Meanwhile, Yaohua heard someone mention his name and rank. A young man, talking to a very stern-looking Dragonblooded woman, in Lookshy-styled clothing. She looked old, which, for an Exalt, meant that she was _old_. He didn't give a sign that he had overheard them, and just started getting closer to them.  
  
After a false start, I moved through the crowd of hanger-ons surrounding Saffron. She was talking to an Immaculate monk, who was facing away from me. As I got closer, I heard what the monk was saying.  
  
She was describing a fight she had led, almost a year ago. How she had eridacted a shrine to the east. How the sun cult was clearly practicing human sacrifice. How the Forsaken that had spawned there used her sisters as shields. How she finally died, burning the shrine and everyone in it to the ground. And how that was a good thing, and showed how people worshiping the Unconquered Sun were too unstable to ever be trusted.  
  
And on that note, the session ended.


End file.
